It seemed like every time he stopped into his private investigator office now -- on the second floor of an old brick building under a sign that read 'REED & WRIGHT - INKSELLERS' -- the amount of dust had reached a new level.  Granted, it was rare these days that he found himself in the small office on Garrick Street, but it was still his best option for a private meeting when he didn't want to drag a contact into the Ministry.

"Thanks for dropping in," Jonas said as he settled back into the chair behind the well-worn desk in his office.  He shielded a sneeze at the dust, and then flashed his guest a crooked smile across the wooden expanse between them.  "I have to say, I didn't think I'd see you back in the city this time of year. Not the warmest place to hunt for gold, innit?"

The Cursebreaker flashed a lopsided smile back at him as she settled into her chair.

"It is much warmer here than my last assignment," she said bemusedly. "And there are no dragons, so I think I will not mind a brief stop in London too much."

It had been almost two years since he'd last seen Raizel Cohen.  The Cursebreaker's work took her all over the world, but coincidentally, when Foy Pilpher had recommended a couple of names to Niobe to take a look at the warded hidey-hole that they'd found outside the wax museum,[1] Rai's name had been on the short list.  Then, coincidentally, after he'd owled her, she'd responded a day later to say that she happened to be back in the United Kingdom on work.

They chatted for a few moments, trading pleasantries and catching up, until Raizel finally got to the point.

"What did you need my help with, Jonas?" she asked him, one eyebrow raised.

"Well," he said, and started to explain.

Raizel listened, paying just the right amount of careful attention as he retold the story from a few weeks prior.  She said hmm in all the right places, asked a few thoughtful questions, and tapped her chin thoughtfully a few times.  At the end, she gave a considered-yet-firm nod.

"I am happy to come and look at your little smuggling hole," she said, flashing him another smile.  "I'll be here in London for another few days.  Just let me know when is convenient, yeh?"

She rose to her feet, and, after standing as well, he stepped around the desk to give her a hug.  After she had helped with recovering his magic several years before,[2] and after everything with the Eleors, they were on better than handshake terms.

"Oh," Jonas said, remembering, as the Israeli mage was shrugging on her coat to depart.  "There was one other thing I wanted to ask you about.  You went to Beit Gaddol with Adon, didn't you?"

1.	21 December - Deal Me In
2.	June 18, 2009 - At the End of the Day

Raizel blinked.

"Yeh..." she said carefully, eyeing the Auror.  Jonas Trevelyan wasn't usually one for games; he knew without a doubt that she'd gone to school with Adon and Dreogan, but still she was left feeling like the question was some sort of trap.  Why would he possibly be acting like he didn't know?  "Why do you ask?"

The Cornish wizard seemed to hesitate for an instant.  "We have someone in custody who I think might have been at school around the same time as you," he replied.  "But I didn't want to presume that you might know her.  Reckon I know how it is, after all," he said, affecting a sheepish air.  "The moment I tell anyone that I lived in Exeter, it's always questions about 'do you know this bloke' or 'that one'?" 

He flashed her a quick lopsided smile.  "As if there's only a half dozen folks in the whole city and I'm expected to be acquainted with all of them."

Raizel shifted uneasily, not bothering to hide a slight frown.  Which of her classmates could have ended up in the custody of the British Ministry of Magic?  And a her at that?  She tried to wrack her brain.  Of all the female students that she'd been to school with, she couldn't think of any who were likely to land in such a predicament.

"Maybe I might know her," she said, eyeing him cautiously.  "What is her name?"

Jonas told her, and she blinked hard.

"Savvina Katopodis?"  She stared back at him in shock.  The curly-haired Greek mage had been two years ahead of her in Gibbor House, sandwiched in age between her and her sister Eszter.  But she'd left just before she'd graduated.  The last that Raizel had heard, she'd gone back with her family to Greece.

Either way, somehow Raizel couldn't picture the bright and witty young woman she'd known from school finding her way into a Ministry holding cell in London.  Silently, she groped behind her for her chair with one hand; finding it, she lowered herself to sit again.

"What has she done?" she asked incredulously.

The redheaded Auror gave her a reassuring smile.

"Bit of a long story," he said, as he limped back over to his own chair to sit again too.  "But if you've got a couple more minutes, I can catch you up."