7 December 2011
Wednesday @4pm
Regents Park, London

A thin woman with long black hair walked with her dog under the late afternoon clouds. She had a Daily Prophet tucked under her arm - she'd been meaning to read it but her hands were too cold in this chill.  Skżlos was at the end of his leash, but not pulling. He weaved back and forth across the walk, sniffing all there was to smell. Didn't matter how often they walked this path, there was always something new.

The full moon was a few days away, but Savvina forced herself to go out. Even though it would be easier to grab any spare moment to rest, the sunshine (whatever what there was of it in this country) did her good. Plus, Skżlos couldn't be cooped up any more than he already was. She knew her appearance would be becoming more drawn as the brightest night approached, but the others in the park, they were all strangers. Savvina could be just anyone. Maybe she had the flu, for all they knew, and not an ancient curse.

"Ey. Tsk." Savvina absently corrected the dog who was making like he was going to harass a squirrel. She pulled her green scarf around her neck closer and was nearly to the zoo when she resolved to start making their way back around. They paused at a bench, and Savvina sat down in front of Skżlos. She cooed as she gave him a good bony-fingered scratch around his thick neck fur.  Skżlos lifted his head and let his mouth loll open, happy as a dog could be. Savvina smiled then stood back up.

"Okay, kid, let's go." But  Skżlos didn't obey. His black ears were up and forward very interested in a man off the path. It took to glances for a light of familiarity to spark, and she was hit with a wave of memory, a memory so out of place. She took a few steps toward him, checking over her shoulder. She was almost leaning forward as if peering into a magic wardrobe.

"Avi? Aviad Cohen?" Oh, if it wasn't him she was going to be so embarrassed.

It was a slow process, preparing for the event this weekend.  They'd decided on the zoo, where there were sure to be Muggles around even late at night.  Tawse had apparently been cooped up for far too long, because he was determined to make a show of it, to have some unbridled fun before the holidays.

Unfortunately, having Muggles around at night also meant that there were far too many Muggles around during the day as well.  Preparing for the ritual spell that he intended to cast would have taken several days of preparation regardless, and he wasn't about to do it at night when the winds were the coldest.  The ritual for this particular enchantment wasn't as simple as dropping a ward or scrying for someone's location; doing something so complicated, on such a wide scale, meant laying out his materials in just the right way. 

And so Aviad had come to the park, grumbling, as he sought out places to lay his black and white stones in just the right configuration.  One of the guards that Tawse had Imperiused was supposed to be laying out the necessary markers inside the zoo, but the Israeli mage didn't trust anyone but himself to set down the outer boundary.

He'd just finished setting one of the stones in place, dampening it into the dirt with the heel of his shoe as he grumbled, when he heard the unexpected call of his own name.

"Avi?  Aviad Cohen?"

Aviad looked up, suddenly alert.  He scanned the park quickly, looking startled, until his gaze fell on a woman and a dog.

It took him a moment to place her -- that long, curly black hair, something to the look of her face.  She'd been a few years older than him at school, placed in Gibbor House along with his elder cousin Raizel.

"Sav -- Savvina?" he asked, regarding her bewilderedly.  Seeing her here, in a place so cold and far from home, where no one knew him even after two years and he was used to speaking English every day, made the world feel a bit like it was spinning.  "What are you doing here?"

It had been a very long time since Savvina had seen anyone from home. Her flight across Europe had separated her from everything and everyone. And right there. Raizel's roustabout younger cousin Aviad. Savvina remembered him as too skinny and very annoying, but that was ten years ago. He was grown now. He'd changed, but it was still him. He looked like she'd caught him doing something from the look on his face. Of course, it was just that look of surprise.

"I live here," she said simply in a breathy smile. "I came in June."

Skżlos was wagging his tail furiously, eager to bound forward and smell the new person, but Savvina kept him at a heel. So much had happened, and well, they'd never been that close. Savvina had knew Raizel better. There had been rumors about Aviad after Beit Gaddol, but she'd left school early and lost touch with everyone. But even if it was just Avi, it was something and Savvina felt the nostalgia.

"What about you? You're here. I come to the park all the time and I haven't seen you. How are you?"

She didn't know what to say to him; she estimated this would become uncomfortable.

It was indeed Savvina Katopodis -- looking much more tired, much older and much thinner, but Savvina all the same.  He only vaguely remembered her from school: a friendly older girl who was good at languages, who had been annoyed at his and Benny's antics.

At any other time, he might have been thrilled.  It was a chance to catch up with someone from home, to remind himself that there was more to the world than this wretched freezing place.  But here, today, running into someone that he knew from school was the worst sort of misfortune.  None of the Ministry officials in London knew his name or his face.  Savvina would not only be able to tell them who he was, she'd be able to place him here at the park just before the full moon.

Her dog was wagging his tail, excited to say hello.  Aviad crossed the distance between them and offered the pup a hand to smell. 

"Beseder, toda[1]," he said, switching to Hebrew.  Unlike Savvina, he'd never been one for languages, and reverting to his native tongue for the conversation was better than trying to explain why he'd put so much time into improving his English.

"I was just visiting, and I thought I'd come explore the park.  Who is this?" he asked cheerfully, bending partially to tousle the dog's fur.  Friendly as he was, he offered a helpful distraction to any questions about why Aviad had been off-trail in the bushes.  "He's a handsome boy, yeh?"

1.	"Okay, thanks" -- the normal response to "How are you doing?"

Savvina's lip touched the edge of a smile when Avi changed to Hebrew, and she continued likewise. Like anyone, Savvina eased when someone complimented her little companion and she relaxed the leash so the two could enjoy each other. Skżlos was all wags and nuzzles, searching for some friendliness in Aviad's hands and finding much. He was a gentle, affectionate dog and loved strangers more than she did.

"Just Skżlos," Savvina answered in Hebrew. It was Greek for 'dog'. They'd become a pair a few years ago in Brussels when they'd both needed someone.

Aviad mentioned he was here in London visiting and Savvina felt a little pang. What if it was someone she knew? Would she even want that, to have to make explanations or to wonder if it was widely known what happened to her, that she was a werewolf, that her family had left her, that she was no longer the Savvina everyone knew.

But what if it was a blessing, that Aviad who'd once been a scamp was now a messenger of fate who was marking the way. Stranger things had happened in these last six years. Everyone you meet could be a marker on a path. And Aviad was the starkest signpost in London yet.

"Who are you visiting? How is Raizel?[1] I see her finding adventure anywhere she goes. Or Eszter?[2]"

Savvina's tone was hopeful. London could be bleak when you had no one but friends of circumstance.

1.	Raizel Cohen, Aviad's cousin.
2.	Raizel's sister.

Skżlos came trotting over to greet him, and Aviad returned the affection, scratching the dog's head and ruffling his ears.  Cooing over Savvina's pet bought him a moment to think through the unexpected situation. 

If his fellow Beit Gaddol graduate lived here in London, then she probably knew people here, possibly even had connections to the Ministry.  All it would take was word getting out after Saturday night that something had gone on in the zoo, and perhaps she'd start to put the pieces together.  Ritual spells, like the one he was intending to cast, were much more of an Eastern magical tradition than a western one.  If news of it caught her interest, she might remember seeing an old classmate in the vicinity of where the attack had taken place. 

And then she might start wondering.  Start asking questions.  And if she asked them of the wrong person at the Ministry, then the careful anonymity that he'd been working to cultivate over the past two years would get blasted out the window, and the Aurors would be hot on his trail.

Savvina had moved on to the next natural conversation topic, happily chatting.  Unfortunately, his cousins were not a topic that he wanted to discuss either, not after what had happened on his travels with Eszter and Raizel's youngest sibling, Benny.

"Oh -- they're both well," he said after a beat, seemingly drawing himself back from his distraction.  He had no idea what either of the Cohen sisters were up to now, but he gave Savvina an attempted warm smile anyhow.  "Rai just moved here to London.  Eh..."  He made a show of looking about the park.  "Do you live close to here?  We could get together for dinner sometime while I'm here, maybe."

Savvina could hardly believe it. Aviad was the first familiar face she'd seen in so long, and here they were talking in a London park. Savvina barely knew Aviad but it felt natural, here with Skżlos, to be speaking of names they both knew together. If he knew what she was, he didn't let on. She smiled and moved her hair behind her ears.

Aviad seemed to hesitate. Pause at something on his mind, but Savvina guessed he must just feel awkward. Ten years was ages, and she'd just appeared out of the blue. Could make anyone feel a little uncomfortable. So when he did finally respond, she opted not to quiz him anymore.

"Oh," she said and nodded. "That's good for them."

Raizel and Eszter were well. Raizel was here in London, too, so Savvina made the assumption that's who Avi was here to visit. And then he surprised her.

"I'm staying in Peckham. It's in south London," she explained for his benefit, since he was visiting.

"There's a Nigerian place, have you had Nigerian food before? We can tell each other where we've been." Her mother used to say that.

It would be difficult to blame Savvina for trusting Aviad. So many things had gone wrong, such violent disappointments over years since she'd been bitten. She'd been on the move so much that the inconstant became familiar and the only sure thing was the cycle of preparations for the full moon. Even now, Wolfsbane Potion sat in her bag next to her coin purse and a packet of almonds. Whether she should have known or not that happening upon an old face in a new place could be read by many as a bad open, she'd have the opportunity to regret it.

"Or I could meet you," she added, giving him an out.

Savvina chatted away, and it made a part of him deep down feel bad for what he was going to do.  But Aviad clamped down on that quickly:  he might feel bad now, but he would certainly feel worse if his former schoolmate ever put the pieces together on this encounter, if she went to the Ministry to confess her suspicions of his role in the attack that was about to happen.  Truly, Savvina Katopodis had sealed her fate the second that she'd called out his name.

He was recovering himself more now, falling into the rhythm.  If he was going to get out of this mess, he needed to be friendly, not the sort of person that anyone would be suspicious of.    They'd chat, and laugh, and make plans to go to her Nigerian place.  And then, as soon as he managed to catch her alone, he'd take care of what needed to be done.

At her weak offer to meet him somewhere, he shook his head in vigorous protest.

"No, no, no!  I've never tried Nigerian food, so now that you've suggested that, we'll have to come to you."  Aviad flashed her a winning smile.  "Even if Rai has work obligations, I will find an excuse to beg out since I am here on holiday.  Maybe we can come and pick you up from where you're staying, and then head to the restaurant all together?"

He was just caught off guard, Savvina realized. When she'd first come up to him and he seemed put off, it was just that he hadn't expected to see someone like her here in this part of the world. But there it was, there was that ease, and even in a grown man's face she saw the scampy little boy who'd been such trouble for everyone.

"It will have to be tomorrow," she said. The full moon was on Saturday and she needed the day before to herself to make sure everything was set. "Seven o'clock? Here, my address."

She reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook. A little lunar calendar card served as a bookmark for the fresh page; she held it between her knuckles as she scribbled out her address. She tore out the page and handed it to him. Skżlos waded around her, hoping there were treats for him in her bag.

"I should get going. You don't know how nice it is to see a friendly face, Aviad Cohen. Tomorrow then."

fin