It was a warm Monday morning when Ventus found himself appariting to Charing Cross. With the blink of an eye he went from his manor in Edinburgh to Charing Cross. Or more accurately, a back ally somewhere within the vicinity of Charing Cross. He rolled his shoulders and stepped out onto the main road. It was brighter than he anticipated, forcing him to squint and cover his eyes. He quickly pulled out from his pocket a pair of sunglasses he had acquired from a random Muggle.

He blinked a few times, his shaded eyes now adjusting to the light. He watched for a moment as the cars drove up and down the street; wondering for a time what it must be like not to have any magical ability. He shook himself from such thoughts, it didn't matter anyways.

Ventus turned to his right and began heading down the street. Glancing at the street signs he found that he was closer to his destination than he originally thought. As he walked down the street, he passed the Leaky Cauldron. He stopped a few steps past its door and sighed heavily; realizing that he could have simply apparited there instead the street. Anger began to rise in him, but it subsided when he remembered that he didn't have the time to become angry. He glanced at his pocket watch, 9:37 AM.

Picking up his stride, Ventus quickly made his way to a small, second-hand bookstore. He stopped outside and read the sign, 'REED & WRIGHT - INKSELLERS.' yes. This was the place. Stepping through the side door, Ventus found himself inside a small lobby. He took a few steps towards the door to the stairs and tried to open it. Locked. He frowned and crossed his arms, idly glancing around the room. As he looked down he saw a small intercom, the words 'Jonas Trevelyan' were written across a button.

Again cursing his foolishness,he reached out and pushed the button. After a few minutes of waiting with no response, Ventus wondered for a moment if he could speak through it. He knew that some of these Muggle machines worked that way, still, he couldn't tell.

He shrugged, not seeing the harm in trying, and pushed the button again. As he held it down he spoke, "Mr. Trevelyan, are you in?"

It was rather a matter of chance that Jonas was in the office at all.  He hadn't spent much time here since he'd taken the position with Level Two, when the dark, cluttered office that had weathered the worst of days had given way to the clean, crisp hallways of the Ministry.  His old office was mostly abandoned these days, as was the bookshop below it, but he still kept it up, both for appearance's sake -- there was no telling when he might need to use his carefully cultivated connections amongst the Muggle law enforcement community -- and for storage. 

The Auror had stopped by early that morning to drop off his illicitly-gotten copy of the Runespoor casefile.  Jonas had noticed with an almost bemused detachment that it was getting harder and harder to leave that particular investigation in the office.  With the clock ticking down, every moment counted, and it was hard not to spend them thinking about Tait, ruminating over the case as if going over the facts in his head one last time would trigger some sudden breakthrough. 

He knew it wouldn't -- no one was that good -- but he'd still taken the file home over the weekend.  After two days spent mulling it over in between the time he'd spent with Anna and the kids, Jonas wasn't any closer to deciphering the truth than he'd been the week before.  He'd just finished resignedly tucking the folder back into the false compartment in the bottom desk drawer when the buzzer erupted into ear-splitting life. 

The sudden noise was enough to start him; even when he'd been living here full-time, unannounced visitors had not exactly been frequent.  Jonas let out a fluent string of swears, some of which he would have been embarrassed to admit might have been Hebrew, as he slammed his leg into the desk in a misguided attempt to both throw himself out of the way and jump to his feet all at once.

"Bloody hell," he finished in a growl, limping more than usual as he gingerly made his way across the room to where the intercom was located on the wall.  He hit it with his hand; he didn't recognize the voice, but no one who was polite enough to use a doorbell or call him Mr Trevelyan was likely to be there to kill him.

"Yeah, I'll buzz you up," he informed it sourly.  "Wait for the sound, then try the door."

He hit the button to deactivate the lock, and then turned to limp back across the room, taking his usual seat behind his desk to wait for his visitor.

Ventus raised an eyebrow in disbelief as a voice replied to him. Smiling slightly to himself, he opened the door and headed up the steps. He still could not believe an Auror would have such a place. From what he knew, they usually kept to their Ministry offices. Still, Ventus was relived at the luck, would save him the trouble of prying eyes.

And if this Jonas fellow became too suspicious of his intentions, well, Ventus could always wipe his memories.

When he reached the top of the stairs, Ventus quickly put on his best impression of a kind young man. He smiled slightly and adjusted his posture as to not look too arrogant when he met Trevelyan. He paused and took a deep breathe, running a mental checklist, then stepped through the door.

Once again, Ventus raised an eyebrow. While the office wasn't necessarily dirty, it looked as if it hadn't been used in almost a year; an obvious layer of dust covered everything. Still, it was well organized, papers were stacked neatly on the mans desk. The man Ventus failed to notice at first.

Ventus smiled warmly and approached the desk, "You must be Mr. Jonas Trevelyan." Ventus said kindly, though he thought he could detect a flicker of doubt in Jonas's eyes. "Let me introduce myself," he continued "My name is Ventus, and, well to be perfectly blunt..." Ventus crossed his arms.

"I need to know everything about that incident with the mummies."

Jonas had just had time to ease himself into the chair, to push the drawer hastily shut with his foot, when the door opened.

He didn't recognize the smiling young man who entered.  His visitor was at least a few inches shorter than he was, thin as a rail, and young -- Jonas would probably put him in his mid-twenties, a few years younger than Adon but clearly well out of Hogwarts age.  Vaguely Asian -- if he had to guess, he'd say Chinese.  He was dressed well, which probably meant money or that he wanted to give the impression of money.  The only distinguishing feature were two parallel, jagged scars along the left side of his face.

Judging by first appearances, there was no way to tell whether the bloke was a wizard or not.  Jonas glanced idly at his wrists, but there was no wristwatch there -- not that the absence was a giveaway.  Plenty of Muggles had abandoned traditional watches in favor of mobile phones and other timekeeping devices.  Not wearing one didn't necessarily mean that one wasn't a Muggle.

He obviously had come here intending on finding Jonas, though.  The Auror wasn't quite certain which way that led.  The bloke seemed friendly enough, so Jonas kept his expression impassive but faintly interested, letting his forehead crease as he considered the introduction.  Just Ventus.  No hint if it was a personal or  family name.

Whatever inquiry he'd been expecting, a question about 1 January wasn't it.  Jonas blinked, regarding the other man for a moment, and then nodded to the chair on the visitor's side of the desk, which was currently occupied by an enormous pile of papers.

"Have a seat, Mr Ventus," he said amiably, giving the younger man a friendly smile.  If he were asking after the mummies, then he was probably a wizard.  That brought its own unique advantages and dangers.  "You're lucky you caught me in, I've got a coworker stopping in any minute now.  Why so interested in mummies?"

Ventus glanced at the chair and grimaced slightly. It was covered in dust. He looked back at Jonas. "If you insist," he said pulling up his right shirt sleeve to better expose his wand. With a quick sweeping motion, the dust flew off the chair and formed into a ball. He gently plucked the ball of dust out of the air and placed it on the desk.  Ventus fell into the chair, crossed his legs, and placed his hands on his knee. He looked Jonas in the eye and spoke.

"Now, the reason as to my inquiry is merely academic," He lied. He hoped it would sell him, but Ventus wasn't quite sure. "I've been researching the beliefs and traditions of death for other cultures. I'm hoping to gain enough research to use as a means to help me acquire a position in the Ministry."  He leaned forward, planning an escape plan in case the man saw through his lies. Still, he kept his smile warm.

"I'm mostly interested in the object that brought the mummies back to life. Do you happen to know what it was? Where it is now?"

The friendly smile faded into a faint, thoughtful expression as Jonas regarded the younger man.  With a flourish of his suddenly exposed wand, Mr Ventus revealed himself as a wizard, conveniently collecting all of the dust that had collected on the chair and probably a few more mites besides into a ball, and then dumping it on the former private investigator's desk.

Jonas raised his eyebrows, considering this, and then gave the other man a pleasant smile.  "Rubbish bin's on the side of the desk," he informed him cheerfully, sliding his chair back as he reached behind him to collect a volume off the bookshelf.

He returned to his original position, setting the heavy book down with a clunk on the desk in front of him.  It was brightly colored, clearly the result of Muggle publishing; a vivid but stationary picture of King Tut or some other mummy stared back at him from the cover as he opened it.  Jonas frowned as he began to page through, briefly glancing over each page.  Looking through it gave him a chance to think.

His visitor had come here clearly expecting that he was connected to the Egyptian objects.  He hadn't specified, but Jonas hadn't heard of any other incidents involving mummies rising from the dead outside of the one at the museum.  He'd also come expecting to find the Auror at his former office, which meant he'd either tracked him here or gotten lucky.  Mr Ventus had put some effort into this.  If all he had was an academic interest, there was no reason that he couldn't have owled ahead.

"You're talking about the bit at the Museum, yeah?" he asked, glancing up at the other wizard with an inquisitive look.  "You might be able to help me, then, mate, if you're working to become an expert," he said, flashing a quick smile before returning his attention to the enormous book again.  "It's been hard to get me hands on any books on the subject.  There really more than one thing that could bring mummies back to life?"

Ignoring the comment of where the trash bin was located, Ventus waited while the man pulled a brightly colored book from the shelf and flipped through it. He regarded the question about whether or not there could be more than one object bringing back the dead with uncertainty. He honestly had no idea what it could be that brought mummies back to life; he just assumed that it was an object, and not some curse placed on them that would raise them if they were disturbed.

But then of course, he still had to pretend like he had some idea.

Ventus shrugged. "Well," he began "First off yes, I do mean the museum. Second, I suppose it's possible that it could have been more then one object. Either way, it would be fairly ornate. Elegant daggers, necklaces, pendants, all of those would be likely to bear a curse." He tilted his head back and tapped his chin, pretending to think. "Of course, it may well have been the mummies themselves that were cursed, the Egyptians did have a habit of doing that to protect against tomb robbers and the like."

He smiled much more viciously than he meant to and added, "Not that they seem to work."

He kept a careful eye on the younger wizard as he flipped through the pages, pretending to carefully regard each picture.  Something was strange about the whole situation.  The mysterious Ventus clearly knew some details of what had happened at the museum, but at least was acting as though he didn't know what had caused it.  That meant it was likely he hadn't spoken to Foley or Reid. 

"I don't know, mate," he said doubtfully, glancing up with another quick smile.  "If I was dead, can't reckon that I'd consider anything that brought me back to life again a curse.  Be a blessing, more like."

He wasn't going to get any answers here by delaying or prevaricating.  Young Master Ventus has peaked his interest, and slightly too vicious or not, simply putting him off in conversation wouldn't explain why he was so interested in something that had happened months ago.  If he wanted to find out, he was going to have to give up a little bit more.

"Tell you what," he said at last, regarding the younger man with a friendly smile.  "I've been curious about that whole mess too.  If you know something about it, why don't we arrange to stop off at the museum sometime this weekend?  I can talk you through what happened back in January, and maybe you can give me your best guess at what caused it."

"I don't know, mate, If I was dead, can't reckon that I'd consider anything that brought me back to life again a curse.  Be a blessing, more like."

Ventus shrugged. Secretly, he agreed. After all, that was the basis of his endeavors for the last six years. But he did recall that, generally, objects that raised the dead were considered 'Dark', or 'Cursed'. So that was what he would go with. At least for the time being.

"Tell you what. I've been curious about that whole mess too.  If you know something about it, why don't we arrange to stop off at the museum sometime this weekend?  I can talk you through what happened back in January, and maybe you can give me your best guess at what caused it."

There was a pause as Ventus thought this over. Yes, that would work. He smiled and held out his hands. "Well," Ventus said calmly. "I confess I really know very little. Just that mummies came back to life. But as I said, I expect it to be an object bearing some sort of curse." He put his chin in his hand, pretending to be in thought. "But," he continued. "A trip there would, perhaps, be best. Especially if you could walk me through everything. It would give me a better idea of what could have caused the event. And of course I'd be happy to help you."

Ventus pulled out a small pocket book and a pen. "This weekend?" He asked, opening the book and turning the pages. "Okay... how about Saturday then? The 30th. I have a large opening from about 12-6 in the afternoon."

The thought of being penciled in to go investigate the risen undead at a museum was almost enough to make him lose his composure.  Jonas fought back a grin, attempting to keep his expression as serious as he could as he regarded the young man.

"Well, hopefully it won't take us that long, will it?" he asked amicably.  "The museum's big, but it's not that big.  I can't imagine it would take us that long to find the mummies."

He let the date book pass without comment.  It was interesting to note it, though; that would certainly be something curious to get his hands on, though he wasn't likely to snag it without Master Ventus knowing.  Still, depending on what the agenda here ended up being, it might be helpful.  It gave useful insight into the other wizard as well -- clearly the young man was someone who liked to be organized, and was used to being in control."

"Shoot for half past two, shall we?" he suggested with a lopsided smile.  "Still puts us within your window, but I reckon it'll leave us plenty of time to talk the whole of it through.  I'd hate for you to be late to your appointment at six."

"Half past two would be wonderful," Ventus said with a warm smile. He tapped his wand to the page before closing planner with a snap. "And, actually," He added calmly. "The appointment at six is merely dinner. Which, you are welcome to attend if you like. My wife does like company."

Again, Ventus smiled warmly. The man was an Auror after all. He would have connections withing the Ministry that could be used. Not that Ventus wasn't prepared to buy a few if he had too. But he was rather curious about acquiring work within the Department of Mysteries. Only someone who was able to be an unspeakable would know what goes on inside.

And Ventus was certain it was somethign worth knowing.