Friday night.  A normal, friday night.  How dreadfully boring.  It was something that all ex-Auror's, more specifically wartime Auror's that could never really sit still.  There was no real peace for them.  And who could blame them?  They had seen some of the most horrid of sights in their careers.  Marcus and Alex had fought against the IRA, in order to find dark wizards experimenting on soldiers.  Some of the things they had found Alex had literally pulled the memory from himself to somehow think he would never see it again.

But now...now he was just an ordinary guy.  Yeah, right.  He would never be ordinary.  Sure he owned a whole slew of apartment complexes because of what he had inherited.  And the Burning Pot, had been rather successful for over 19 years, just coming up on 20.  But he was a wizard.  And a part of him could never just allow himself to reture and take it easy.  There was just no way in hell that was going to happen.  That was why he had started spreading rumors of his new buisness.  An Information Broker.  One thing about being an ex-Auror, was all the connections he had from when he had been one.  Not to mention how great deal more he had as being the Head of Magical Law Enforcement.  Now that was his past...bumped off by backroom politics as it were.  At least that was one rumor going around.

That last being another one spread by him.  It had several purposes.  One, his loyalty was thrown into question, making his potential clientel much larger.  Since it was possible he might hold a grudge against the Ministry.  Not really true consider the Minister of Magic was his old partner and best friend.  Still his information wouldn't come cheap, and he was damn good at getting information.

But not tonight.  It was a slow friday, with the usual muggle crowd in his tavern, enjoying all the recent upgrades.  A group of college kids took up most of the pool tables, and while louder than most they weren't causing much of a ruckus.  Others came for the food, with the Burning Pots reknowned chili cheese fries the crowd favorite tonight.  Alex sat in his usual booth, in the darkest part of the tavern, he had his usual beer and basket of chili cheese fries.  As much as he enjoyed the simple joy this gave him.  Not having to do paperwork, thinking about a new case in the wizarding courts or what the next big danger is.  Nope, instead he was just really, really, really, really, really, bored.

It had taken four weeks of persistent, unending phone calls on the other man's part before Jonas had finally agreed to join him for a drink.

Kim Gallagher had been his next door neighbor.  Their daughters were the same age and their wives had immediately clicked when the Trevelyans had moved into the neighborhood, so Jonas had been forced into an awkward friendship.  Kim worked as a plumber and could be a bit slow at mental gymnastics, but he was a good sport and the private investigator had always tolerated him all right. 

At least , Jonas thought sourly, he had tolerated him up until the older man had decided to take a personal interest in Jonas after the divorce.  Kim seemed to think he was spending too much time alone, which Jonas supposed was possibly true but was not going to be willingly corrected any time soon.

He had managed to dodge the phone calls for most of the past month.  Kim had finally rung him when he was bleary eyed and off guard early in the morning, and Jonas still wasn't entirely sure what he'd agreed to.  But the next thing he knew, he was going for drinks at some pub Kim enjoyed that was popular with the younger set, and Jonas had been forced to rig the alarm on his phone so that he could fake an important call and escape if the conversation became too unbearable.

Kim had been prattling about who England were playing in the World Cup the next night ever since they'd met at the Tube station.  Jonas had, quite frankly, tuned him out.  He didn't give a bloody damn about rugby any more than he did about Quidditch, which was far more relevant to his current concerns than any Muggle sport.

He caught himself thinking it.  Muggle sport.  Jonas grimaced and tried to focus on what Kim was saying.

The older man had apparently switched topics, because he was giving Jonas a concerned look.  "-- but if you don't like it, Jon, we can find somewhere else."

"What?"  Jonas's mind raced as he belatedly tried to catch up with the conversation.  "No, no, mate, it's fine.  Fine," he added lamely, glancing around at the interior of The Smoldering Something or wherever they'd ended up.  If Kim was expecting him to unwind over a game of pool, Jonas was going to have to set his escape alarm to go off a lot sooner.

"Here, I'll even buy to start," he offered as he started for the counter.  At least that would assuage his conscience if he only stayed the first round.  "You want the bitter, yeah?  Go ahead and find a place to sit."

So what exactly does a ex-Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement do to get his kicks?  You would think that there wouldn't be a position that could keep one busier, short of being Minister of Magic.  But with a little creativity, and too much spare time, he could come up with quite a lot.  To the Wizarding World, he was just another in a long line that retired.  Out with the older wizards who had fought in the war against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.  In with the ones that had come after that fact.  The ones that maybe don't realize what had been sacrificed to bring the Ministry to what it was.

Personally, Alex didn't give a crap about any of that.  For him, it had always been about helping people that needed it and kicking  dark wizard ass along the way.  That was how his whole life had been so why should he change now?  Except that the rules of engagement were changing, more and more each day.  So Alex knew that he would have to as well.  He wasn't that old, not by wizarding years, but he had done his fair share of work for the Wizarding World.    But life as an Information Broker, could quite possibly be one of the most boring things he ever decided to be.

No more busting down doors and taking names, no various dark wizards coming to randomly try and make his day go bad.  It was all just information, hearing about this, hearing about that.  And a whole list of names that Alex wasn't even sure he had heard of ever before.  Funny, he never rmembered all these people being around when he was Head of Law Enforcement.  Still he knew lots of names, and their current activities.  And for the right price he might be willing to let that information go.

He took a drink of his beard and surveyed the current crop of customers that filled the Burning Pot.  What he saw was certainly going to add the possibility of a non-boring evening.  Jonas Trevelyan, ex-Auror on account that he left when the Ministry had started doing the pure blood test when Voldemort had taken over the Ministry.  Alex and Marcus had also dropped off the radar quickly as well.  But they were making arrest and housing them in impromptu cells as things escalated.  Of course, then the Battle of Hogwarts happened, and Alex and Marcus spent the next few months cleaning up the neighborhood by nabbing a large number of Death Eaters.  It had certainly been to busy to realize that other Auror's had gone missing.  Jonas being one of them.  And no doubt Jonas hadn't a clue that he had walked into an establishment of Alex's.  Kim, the one with Jonas, was a regular, and now that he thought about it, he recalled having a conversation with Kim that had referred to Jonas.  Of course, Alex had no way of knowing it was this Jonas. 

That would certainly make the night interesting.

"Elaine," Alex spoke as his favorite employee walked by.

"Yes, boss?" she had tray with several drinks on it, and only looked at him.

"Tell the man by Kim that I want to speak to him," Alex smiled.

She looked over, "Alright, after I take these drinks over."

Alex nodded and she walked off.  He wondered what Jonas had been doing over all these years.  Plus another small notion came to his mind.  This could certainly be a good thing.

The ale that Jonas had finally selected was full and bitter, with none of the creamy nonsense with too much head that one got in the North.  The private investigator conceded that whatever its cute name, the pub had a selection on tap that was much better than some of the standard fare one found throughout the city.  As he limped back to the table that Kim had chosen, he decided he could see why the older man preferred this place in spite of the younger crowd.
 
Unfortunately, not even the slightly oaky taste of the ale could save Jonas from the inevitable conversation, which predictably turned to matters that he had no intention of discussing soon after he'd settled into the chair.
 
Kim was no good at subterfuge.  He waited for Jonas to arrange himself, taking a long sip of his bitter, and then brought it up.  "Talked to Anna recently?"
 
Jonas sighed.  So much for avoiding the elephant.  "No, but I've been busy," he replied tiredly, giving what had become the standard answer.  Kim knew that he hadn't said a word to his ex-wife as well as Jonas did; Anna and the kids still lived next door to the Gallaghers, and Jonas knew that she and Kim's wife Charlotte spoke regularly.  "Been running all over the city, and the phone gets shite reception when I'm about."
 
Which was true - it did, and the awful reception was made worse when he was spending his time in Diagon Alley or other places frequented by magic users.  Jonas had taken to leaving it behind all together and relying on his office line to make calls.  The fact that this conveniently made him next to impossible to contact was a coincidental benefit as far as he was concerned.
 
The look on Kim's face made it clear that the other man doubted the accidental nature of this boon.  "So she hasn't talked to you about Gwenna?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.  "Charlotte said she mentioned that she'd left you some messages about it, Jonas."

Jonas took a long swallow of ale so that his grimace would be less obvious.  "Did she?" he asked nonchalantly.  "I must have skipped through them.  Been getting a lot of messages, since the phone hasn't been working."

Kim gave him a smile that was far too sympathetic for the private investigator's liking.  "You skipped through five of them?" he asked gently.

Luckily, an interruption spared him from having to come up with an excuse for why both phone and answering machine were both malfunctioning or, even worse, admitting that he had indeed deleted each and every message that opened with his ex-wife's familiar voice.

"Evening, Kim."  The harried-looking waitress put a hand on Jonas's chair, pausing long enough to flash the two men a smile.  "Sorry to bother you two, but the owner'd like a word when you have a second, mister." 

Jonas blinked.  It took a moment for it to register that she was speaking to him and not his friend.  "Yeah?" he asked, flashing her a quick smile in return.  "What about, miss?"

The waitress shrugged, communicating through the gesture the unfathomable motives of most employers.  "He didn't say.  Just that he wanted a word.  If you want to find out, you'll have to wait or run your own message back," she added, giving him an apologetic but hurried smile as she started back for the bar.  "I've got a few orders to get out."

The red-haired man frowned after her, and then glanced at Kim.  His friend looked equally flummoxed.

"Must be a friendly bloke," Jonas remarked, picking up his ale again.  At the very least, the mysterious owner had saved him from having to respond to Kim's query, so for that alone he felt grateful.  Best to keep the current topic of conversation going.  He gave Kim a quizzical look.  "You know the owner, yeah, mate?"

Kim nodded, frowning as he glanced at Jonas and then across the room.  "Yeah.  He's in most days, but I haven't seen him in a while.  Fellow by the name of Belisario."

Jonas's stomach dropped.

It was hard not to react.  For years, he had wondered what it would feel like if they actually came for him.  He hadn't been sure if it would be worse or not if whoever came had once been a colleague or friend.  Even now, knowing that the days of hiding and constant paranoia were long past, it was difficult not to jump once the adrenaline kicked in.  He took a long sip of his ale, seizing the moment to get his nerves under control, and then glanced nonchalantly across the room.  Sure enough, he recognized the older man at the corner table instantly.

"Well, I'd better go see what he wants, eh?" he asked Kim, flashing him an apologetic grin as he began the process of climbing to his feet.  At the very minimum, at least this would shorten the amount of time left for the inevitable conversation with his former neighbor before his escape alarm rang.  "Sorry, mate.  If this takes too long, have yourself another one on me."

Taking his drink in hand, Jonas carefully picked his way across the room.  Alexander Belisario had been a full Auror when Jonas had first entered the Ministry.  At first, he'd only known the older bloke by reputation and through Tait's stories of him, but they'd worked a couple of cases together once the war had escalated.  How an Auror could end up owning a Muggle pub in London, Jonas had no idea.

He had carelessly and unfortunately assumed that there would be no need for his wand tonight.  There was no point in cursing the decision to leave it back in his office now - he certainly wouldn't make that mistake twice, he thought grimly, not now that he was getting mixed up in things again - but he still felt distinctly unprotected as he stopped just short of Belisario's table, close enough that their conversation could be held in low voices but with enough distance that he could get out of the way if he needed to.

"Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?" he asked evenly.  His eyes flickered cautiously over the pub's owner as he flashed the other man a friendly smile.  "I can't say that you were the first person I would have expected to find here.  Fallen into a new line of work, have you?"

Alex laughed, he couldn't help it.  "It has been a while, especially if you think its odd I would be here.  I've owned this thing since 1989.  Heck I even brought us here at the end of one of our cases.  But that was a lifetime ago so I can't exactly blame you."  He realized that he wasn't like most pureblood wizards.  Alex had been abandoned to a muggle family, where he was raised by a muggle named Jerry Forrester.  A man who just happened to be quite a buisnessman and had taught Alex quite a big deal abut buisness as he grew up.  As a result Alex was quite the property owner.  He owned several apartment complexes in England, and even some in France and other nearby countries.  Alex had been a multi-million dollar man since Jerry had died. 

Technically Alex never had to work another day in his life, but that just wasn't in his blood.  He was continuing striving for better things.  Either improving his buisness, or even just himself.  But he never forgot that he was a wizard.  He had spent the majority of his life fighting and protecting his kind, and in the end he had left his office due to backroom politics.  Alex, who had been considered a war hero and one of the best Auror's that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had ever seen. 

So now, all he had was money and time, something rather dangerous for a man that could never sit still.  Of course, if Ariella had been around maybe he would have quietly retired by now.  But that was no use pondering about.

"Good to see you," Alex said raising up his beer before taking a drink from it.  "I figured you were about somewhere.  Who knew I would run into you at my own tavern.  So if you don't mind me asking, what exactly have you been up to since you disappeared?  I don't see you being the type of ever stopping the good fight."

Things had been bad for all of them durring that time.  A lot had run off into hiding just like Alex and Marcus.  Doing their own best to fight against the forces that had taken over the Ministry.  Things had gotten convoluted and overall just a horrible mess, but it was good that Jonas had made it through, even if he wasn't sure why he had never returned.

Jonas was usually the last one to worry about the Statute of Secrecy.  When he'd been young, having to keep a good three fourths of his life hidden from the other quarter had been downright frustrating, and he had never quite accepted that such paranoia was necessary.  Any normal individual, Muggle or not, was much more likely to simply ignore any conversation that they didn't understand.  All of the normal bluster about being careful had always seemed to him like so much sound and fury.

And it was hardly as if Muggles never had unusual conversations of their own.  Jonas had once missed his stop on the Underground because he had been convinced that the five teenagers sitting next to him were aspiring Death Eaters who were secretly plotting to overthrow the Dark Lord and rule the world in his place.  It wasn't until one of them had made several allusions to a "plus five sword" and they had begun discussing what sort of pizza to order at their next session that he had realized they'd been talking about some sort of roleplaying game. 

He suspected that most discussions about magic were like that for Muggles  - something that they assumed would obviously make sense in the mundane worldview if the listener had the context.  Who besides a jumpy former Auror would ever bother taking the time to find out? 

But somehow, with his wife's next door neighbor only some odd yards away on the opposite side of the pub, the entire Statute was a bloody hell of a lot more understandable than it ever had before.  It seemed downright reasonable, in fact.  Jonas tried not to seem too nervous as he glanced back over his shoulder at Kim, reassuring himself that the older man was still seated at their table too far away to overhear.

"Oh, not a lot," he replied, keeping his voice light and hopefully quiet enough that it wouldn't carry.  It was hard not to prickle at the implication that he'd given up on any sort of fight, even though he knew that he had.  Jonas took a deep breath, letting the defensive feeling roll off.  "Travelled a bit.  I meant to leave a forwarding address, but it completely slipped me mind.  Felt like a bloody idiot once I realized, I did," he added cheerfully.

A careful glance proved that Kim was still patiently waiting across the room.  Jonas risked a quick smile at Alex, tucking his free hand into the pocket of his coat.

"And you must still be at the Ministry, yeah?" he asked amiably, crossing his fingers in his pocket as he let his Muggle neighbor slip from his attention.  With any luck, no one near the conversation would wonder which Ministry might employ the pub's owner.  "How has it been all this while?  Never the same once it's slowed up from the old days, innit?"

"Actually, things never really slowed down.  Its just things changed.  But actually, I'm no longer apart of the Ministry.  As a matter of fact I made front page of the Prophet when I did.  But I wager you don't keep as close an eye on the wizarding world then you might have used too," Alex chuckled, slightly amused by the thoughts.  The truth of it was everyone knew he had left, but not that he was actually in London.  The muggle part of London to be precise.  That, was of course, the place where his real money was made.

Despite that his pay as Head of Law Enforcement had been quite substantial, he rarely used any of it.  Most of it, in fact, he gave off to charities of all kinds.  He figured there was a lot of people more deserving of the money than him.  He was better off than he felt he ever deserved.  His legal guardian, Jerry Forrester had left him the apartment complexes he owned.  Which turned out to be quite substantial.  But Alex had his career as an Auror.  And that wasn't something he had ever planned on giving up.

Things certainly hadn't panned out as he planned though.  Nothing was ever set in stone, and his life had always been quite unpredictable.  Seeing Jonas only served to remind him of his past.  This was something he had been attempting to move on from with the help of Claudia.  She was an exceptional woman, intelligent, and beautiful.  And perhaps he didn't deserve it, being as she was a little over ten years younger than him.  But delving on such facts was useless.

He turned his thoughts back to the moment.  "Now I am but a simple tavern and apartment owner.  I may not have much stack in the wizarding world, but I live quite comfortably.  That isn't to say that I'm completely out of the game.  I often find myself with information that other people need.  Assuming the price is right."

Jonas could have protested that it wasn't that he didn't keep an eye on the wizarding world, which he was certainly having to as of late.  Even when he'd taken his absence, he had still been painfully and precisely aware of it; there was no other way to ensure that he didn't come into contact with any part of it.  But there were still some offenses that he had no intention of forgiving, and the Daily Prophet had published some choice opinions in the darker days of the war.  His personal boycott of the paper might not be much of a public statement, but he had grimly determined that continuing it made him feel a hell of a lot better.

Finding out that Belisario was no longer with the Ministry was a bit of a surprise; hearing that he was still involved in information trading was decidedly not.  Jonas would have staked money that the older man would have to be either forcibly retired or forcibly promoted to get him to leave the Auror Office on Level Two.  He'd probably be dead before he took his fingers entirely out of the pot.

Jonas glanced in Kim's direction to reassure himself, his attention divided between his former neighbor and former coworker.  "Convenient, that," he said affably, mulling over Alex's words.  And it was.  He knew that he needed contacts, knew firsthand how difficult it was to cultivate them considering that he was never much of a hand at patient gardening, and here was one offering itself on the auction block.

He risked taking his eyes off the Muggle in order to turn his attention back onto Belisario.  "Might be a bit of a coincidence, but I've spent the past few years licensing out as a private investigator out of London," he informed him in a low voice.  "Taken on a few more unusual clients recently, so it might be worth a talk sometime.  You know, a few drinks, just to catch up on old times."

Convience.  Its a word that Alex had recently become quite suspicious with.  After his years in the Ministry and several dealings with oracles and just the things that happened, he was sure nothing completely happened by accident.  Except maybe when he would spill something on the floor because his refridgerator had a tendency to have something fall out of it whenever he opened it.  Something was wrong with the damn door.  But some might even argue that it had a purpose.  Though Alex only saw it as a pain in the ass, cause it usually happened when he was trying to leave but he would end up spending the next twenty minutes cleaning up a mess.

Still this instance, it would definately be a benefit to Jonas, and Alex could never turn away a potential customer.  Alex didn't believe this was a coincidence at all.  Plus Jonas being a Private Investigator would help him as it provided another avenue of possible information.  Though Alex showed no real outward response, he went for his beer, and instead sliding it towards Jonas.  In that motion though he had flipped his personal buisness card from his sleeve and under the beer.

"Why don't you have a drink?  And buisness hours are posted on the door.  I'll be around, and you never know when you might be in the need of a stiff drink, plus our food is one of the highest rated in all of London," Alex grinned.  It was all true, but he subtle put emphasis on the bottom of the beer bottle that Jonas would no doubt catch.

His place was more than safe to do work in relation to the wizarding world, since he was stationed in the middle of muggle london.  With Alex's record, any potential bad dealings could go wrong for his client, considering with the location he had plausible deniability.  None of his employee's knew of the Wizarding World and he would always keep it that way.  Even if he had almost shown it to Elaine on several occasions. 

"Door is always open at some time seven days a week," he added with a small laugh.

The red-haired man gave him a dry look, setting his own mug down on the table as he picked up the other bottle.

"Glad the city lets you blokes keep those kind of hours," he said agreeably, palming the card and slipping it into his pocket.  "I reckon I'd like to see the sort of crowd you get at half past four in the morning, although the university kiddos can probably keep going right well past the rest of us."

He paused to examine the bottle, seizing the opportunity to cast a glance across the room at his former neighbor.  Kim had apparently finished off his first drink and headed to the bar to order himself another.  Unless Belisario's staff was much quicker than those of other pubs in London, Jonas reckoned that would buy him another minute or two - maybe a bit longer, if Kim got going on a conversation.

"I can think of a question or two I might like to ask up front, anyhow," he said quietly, lowering his voice as he leaned in closer to the table.  There were several that he could have started with, not the least of which was a quick historical recap of the last twelve years, but playing his cards close to his chest had become a force of habit.  Even if Alex was retired from the Ministry, there were some subjects that he didn't want to broach out of the gate.  Inquiring to Dante Ward, who kept secrets for a living, about the Egyptian dagger was one thing; it was another to wave a crime under the nose of a man who had been a mainstay on Level Two since Jonas was a lad.

But there were a few matters that he could ask about.  He could ask all he wanted, in fact, since he would never be hired to investigate this particular subject, and if Belisario happened to know something, no one could blame Jonas for asking.  Considering how far he was going out of his way to ensure that the dangling fruit that was potential access to Level Two records about the case was never even going to be considered, let alone plucked, he ought to be commended for his considerable restraint.

"There's a few rumors about that the Runespoor smuggling case has been taken back up again," he said, as offhandedly as he could manage while still keeping his voice low.  "You wouldn't happen to know who's leading the investigation now, would you, mate?"

"The runespoor case?" Alex sighed.  That reminded him a lot of things gone by.  A time ago when he was such a different person.  And a eager young man that had rushed off before he was ready.  Too much like Alex had, but the young man's fate ended far too soon.  "I suppose I can tell you.  However, this is still considered classified information.  Archer Radley.  But I should exercise caution in how you use this, as the active Department Head is very close on this case.  And one that I would wager is very...lets say important, to her."

Tamis would probably fillet Alex's head if she ever knew he was turning around to use all he knew to gain a profit.  But Alex was playing a different kind of game, yet still very much political.  Planning steps ahead was harder when his advesaries could be asking any sorts of questions.  Some he could deliver upon being asked, and others he would have to spend time and get in contact with certain people.   Occasionally he'd have to go hunting for info the old fashion way.  But when it came to experience in information gathering, not many could match his skill.

"I'm afraid that's all I know at the moment.  I'm assuming it is enough to suffice your needs," Alex commented and offered a smile.  "If you are ever in need of information and are caught up on something else, feel free to let me know.  I'll be happy to assist you, for a price, of course."

It wasn't like he needed the money.  No it was superfluous, but its real purpose was that he needed to have a form of compensation for his services.  Dispencing information from the goodness of his heart would automatically make him suspicious.  However, looking like a money grubbing ex-Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement made him look, oddly, more trusting.  Especially to the criminal elements of London.  Some might assume that he got canned due to some back room politics, which was true.  But some might assume he had a grudge with the ministry, which was far from true but since it gave him a bit of notoriety he wasn't going to disprove it.

"I don't want to take up your whole evening Jonas.  I'm sure your friend is waiting for you.  Should you require my assistance in the future.  Let me know.  I never forget old comrades."

There was little doubt in Jonas's mind that the Runespoor investigation was close to a lot of people on Level Two.  Unless the war had affected more turnover than he'd realized, it had impacted plenty of Aurors the first time around - not, he though firmly, that it had had any influence still remaining over him, since he was deliberately avoiding the temptation and not looking into it.  But it helped to know who to avoid in order to make it very clear that he wasn't sticking his nose where it didn't belong.

"Yeah, of course," he agreed, inclining his head in a nod to the bar owner.  Nothing like a surcharge for old time's sake, apparently.  Still, it was good to know that the source was available.  "And you need a hand yourself, look me up, yeah?"

He couldn't help sighing when Belisario mentioned Kim again.  Jonas made a good show of not grimacing as he glanced back in his former neighbor's direction.  It was likely only a few more minutes before his escape alarm would go off, which meant that he was going to have a harder time begging out of the upcoming conversation.  He ought to have set it to go off twice.

"Good to hear," he replied, giving the other man a slight smile as he put his free hand to his cap in a semi-salute.  "I might take you up on that sometime, mate.  Be seeing you," he offered slightly ironically, as he took his drink back in hand and returned across the room to where he'd left Kim.