If it hadn't been for the fact that Adon had given her the address himself, Raizel Cohen would have been certain that she had found the wrong place.

The sun was already setting when the Cursebreaker finally made her way to Garrick Street, right in the heart of London. The small building that seemed to match her destination -- as if any of the building numberings here in London made sense -- was incongruous in itself.  The ground floor looked to be some sort of used bookstore, its windows full of all kinds of offers of deals and discounts as they reflected the glare of the last of the day's light.

The expensive-looking security camera aimed at the pavement outside of the side entryway, though, made it clear that this wasn't just any other storefront in central London.  Raizel waited across the street for nearly a minute, chewing her lip as she studied the exterior of the building.  Tilting her head, she shifted her gaze upwards, examining the level that appeared to bear the address of 12-30 Garrick Street.  A wooden sign reading 'REED & WRIGHT - INKSELLERS' hung above the side door that apparently led to the upper story.  The scant windows overhead were tinted, making it impossible to see inside. 

With a shrug, she shifted her satchel over her shoulder and crossed the street.  At near range, there were more clues to the building's identity; a plaque just above the call box read 'Trevelyan Investigations.'  Raizel arched an eyebrow, reading over it, and then slanted a look up at the camera.  Without hesitating, she reached out and depressed the bell.

There was a short pause before the box next to the door sounded.

"Yeah, wait for the buzzer, and then try the door handle," a tinny voice instructed her.  "That'll unlock it.  We're up on the first floor."

Raizel stepped back, still glancing up warily at the camera as she waited for the buzzer to sound.  Once the high-pitched hum had filled the air, she pressed down on the handle and let herself in, starting up the stairwell.

She'd come prepared for anything this evening.  Beyond finally admitting that his "good friend" was male, Adon hadn't given her much information about the victim suffering from this mysterious Egyptian curse.  But now, as she climbed the stairs, Raizel could begin to put two and two together. 

The stairwell opened into a small, darkened office.  Ceiling beams were slanted overhead; a wooden desk with two Muggle monitors on it was the centerpiece of the room.  She glanced over the two men near it, gaze lingering on the one sitting behind the desk for a moment.  Red hair.  Clearly British.  A slight smirk crossed her face.  She recognized him from the paper.

"Auror Trevelyan."  Raizel flashed the man a confident smile as she stepped into the room.  "It's very nice to meet you after reading so much about you.  And Adon."  Her eyes flickered to the younger Auror, and she gave him a bemused, exasperated look as she stepped forward to greet him.

"You didn't tell me that I'd be performing a state service by helping your mysterious friend," she informed him chidingly, leaning to kiss his cheek.  Eyebrows raised, she stepped back, glancing from Adon to the redhead and back again.  "So this is it?" she asked wryly.  "Or are you two the honor guard for someone more important?  If I'm going to be helping your Minister himself, I'll need a moment to prepare my nerves, I think."

"Raizel," Adon exchoed back in mirrored exasperation as he rose from his seat to greet her.

"So this is it?" Adon leaned in, hand on the small of her back as he brushed cheeks fleetingly with hers before pulling back, hiding a chuckle--but not an amused gleam in his eye.

"Rai--You've got a pretty way with words. Try to hide your disappointment a little in front of him, will you? I promise he's alright once you get to know him a bit." He glanced back over his shoulder, grinning at Jonas jovially.  Despite his misgivings formerly, Adon was growing increasingly confident that this--introducing Raizel and Jonas, to get his magic back--was a step in the right direction.   He guessed the partnership was, too, though.

If she was expecting the Minister--she'd be disappointed; or perhaps pleased. He couldn't help but think it highly likely that Jonas Trevelyan would be better company than the reputedly aloof, uber-British Minister of Magic. 

"So. Jonas--Raizel--Adon. Now that we're all comfy-cozy, why don't you have a seat will, you, Rai?" He looked expectantly at Jonas, realizing in a moment of shock that despite all their training on hand motions and typical courses of conversation... they had somehow not prepared for this.  "Can she have a beer? Rai--you want a beer?" 

Whatever Jonas had been expecting -- dark hair and long legs were more typical of the type that he'd predict as one of Adon's old friends -- the woman didn't quite fit.  As she confidently entered the room, he attempted to regard her as unobtrusively and non-judgementally as he could.  Not everything that Adon had said about her was complimentary, but he seemed confident that this was a good bet.  As he'd already noted, the combination of 'skilled' and 'liked to show off' might work in their favor.

"Now that we're all comfy-cozy, why don't you have a seat will, you, Rai?  Can she have a beer? Rai--you want a beer?"

The Cursebreaker shrugged, still smiling slightly, as she turned her gaze on Jonas.  "Business first," she said, dismissing Adon with a fluttering wave of her hand, having already clearly moved her focus past him.  "But after, yes.  You can pick out a good one."

This whole encounter, young as it was, already felt a bit like being under a microscope.  Jonas met the woman's gaze squarely, and tried not to think about what she might be thinking as she carefully looked him over.  Even in all his years of knowing Charisma Aldridge, he'd never actually seen his former best friend's mother when she was working in the capacity of a Cursebreaker; all he knew were fantastical stories about distant lands and dangerous tomb raids, none of which seemed to mesh with sitting in his office and having a discussion over a few beers.  In a way, this had to be supremely disappointing.

"So.  Jonas."  She gave him a faint smile, still regarding him thoughtfully.  "You are the one affected by this curse?"

Jonas was not entirely sure that he liked how quickly they'd all moved onto a first name basis, but he let out a steady breath.  "Yeah," he said evenly.  Adon had shared some details with her already, but not all, he'd said.  Judging by how his conversation with Charisma had gone, he had a feeling he knew what her first request was going to be; it was unfortunate that Aileen Reid was never going to give up the dagger without forceful persuasion. 

"The whole mess has been going on since last November.  Had a run in with an artifact that was lifted from a tomb, which is what I reckon caused it.  I didn't use magic much before it," he admitted, shifting at the uncomfortable note in his voice, "but I haven't been able to use a whit since then.  No spells, nothing."  He locked his jaw, tried to keep his expression nonchalant, even, as if this were a perfectly everyday conversation and not some sort of confession belied with underlaying vulnerability.  "You seen anything like this before?"

Raizel had been standing still as he spoke, still watching, her brows knitting.  At the final question, she huffed out a breath, shaking her hair back over her shoulder as she set her bag down on the wooden floor.

"No," she said dismissively, "but that doesn't matter."  She broke off, as if gathering her thoughts, and then chanced a smile at him, her eyes flickering briefly to Adon and then back to meet his own.  "There are...many different kinds of curses," she said, enunciating each word as if she had chosen it carefully.  "I will need to find out more about this one before I know how best to reduce it.  I'd like to try some magic -- only passive," she qualified quickly, "to let me gather some information.  If you've been around others casting spells, this shouldn't have any effect on you, I don't think."

Well, of course he should have thought about giving alcohol first. But truth be told, Adon hadn't been sure how much of this would be q-and-a consultation, and how much would be... hands on.  Adon had folded his arms across his chest, somewhat reserved, merely watching as he leaned against a wall. That was, until he got a notion of just how hands on Rai wanted this to be.

"Wait a minute," Adon said in clipped syllables, pushing with his shoulder away from the wall.  He did not look at Jonas--not wanting the man to know the full extent to which he was suddenly having misgivings.  "What effect would it have, if it did?"

Rai--she was talented. She knew her stuff.  But she didn't always know how to be--images of tablecloths and flames came to mind-- subtle... with her magic.

There were times when she had to try very hard not to roll her eyes.  Raizel refrained from sighing as well.  This was part of the reason why she'd become a Cursebreaker -- artifacts didn't complain when you tried to retrieve them.   Of course, artifacts didn't have the sentience to know when you'd made a mistake and accidentally incinerated them, so she knew she ought to be more patient than usual.

"How could I know, Adon?" she asked, turning to face the other mage with a frown.  Speaking English with him still felt a bit stilted, but she kept to it for politeness's sake.  "I don't know anything about the curse yet. I don't know how it will respond to other magic, and I won't know until I learn more about it."

"But you're the one who has been near him since November -- and you've been casting spells all this time, yes?"  She raised her eyebrows at him, in question as much as in challenge.  "Have either of you noticed any ill effects so far?  Do you have any reason to think that casting magic nearby will cause a reaction in the curse?"

"How could you know what your spell's about to do?" Adon repeated, trying to sound as calm as possible, but he couldn't keep from raising his eyebrows a bit. "Any idea what the spell is? These effects--are the result of the spell? Or just magic?"

He looked over towards Jonas with a huff, trying to count to ten.  Six... seven... "There haven't been any effects on him from my spells, because I'm usually not casting unknown spells at him!"

This time, Raizel didn't refrain from rolling her eyes.

"I'm not casting a spell at him," she shot back.  This was why she hated having anything to do with Aurors.  This was why she hated Adon, she fumed silently.  Everything that he got involved in turned into an ordeal.  "I'm casting a spell.  I'm going to use Goleya[1] to see what the curse looks like.  Which," she added acerbically, "I use in tombs all the time, and it has never caused a curse to go off.  It's passive.  It doesn't target anything in particular.  That's why I use it like this."

Barely taking a breath, she plunged on.  "And don't shout at me," she added sharply, lifting her chin as she aimed a glare squarely at him.  "I don't care whether you're worried or not, Adon.  You can ask, but not shout."

He had done this the other night, too -- exploded, almost upended a table, and then excused it all because he'd been scared.  Raizel knew what it felt like to be scared.  She knew terrified.  But neither excused you from blowing up at everyone around you.  Not if you were an adult, and not if you were twice their size.  These weren't terms that she would deal with him on.   

"Now," she added icily, holding his gaze as she crossed her arms, "do you have any other questions that you would like to ask about the first spell?  Or can I see if your friend would like to let me try it?"

1.	An Aramaic spell used to detect active magic.  Previously utilized here

Adon shook his head, amused. "Goleya?" Adon repeated, slightly in disbelief. Is that what she was going red in the face about? "That's all? I use that all the time. That's fine." He resumed folding his arms, leaning back against the wall, puffing air from his cheeks. "That's all you had to say, you know."

Raizel glared daggers at him, eyeing him for a long, threatening moment, and then turned to look at the man behind the desk once more.  The red-haired wizard appeared far more relaxed than he had been a few moments before, looking as if he were struggling not to burst into laughter.

He cleared his throat before she could even ask the question, giving a series of suspicious-sounding coughs as he shook his head.

"Naw, go ahead," he said cheerfully.  "I don't --"  He broke off, his voice quavering, and then tried to force back a cough again.  He couldn't look at Adon.  "I, ah, haven't noticed magic having any effect that I wouldn't expect.  Even up in Scotland, and that ambush in front of the Ministry," he added, risking a glance at his partner.  "There were days when there were curses flying around, and it hasn't reacted at all.  I reckon it should be alright."

Raizel huffed out a breath, and then drew her wand.  Ignoring Adon, she studied the red-haired Auror for a moment more.  There was no reason to doubt the information; no reason to think, as of yet, that this supposed curse might have some kind of negative effect on her.  Not that that was ever enough to stop her, anyway.

"Very well," she said, and then murmured, "Goleya."

The magic came forth with the same surge of power that it always did.  The walls of the room faded as they were bathed in an intense, warming light, interspersed with layers of sharper colors.  Warding magic -- the foundation obviously cast by a Middle Eastern mage, but with other Western spells intermingling. 

Raizel took a deep breath and let it out, focusing more solidly on the man behind the desk.  Nothing.  Frowning slightly, she stepped briskly around the side of the desk so that she could get a better look at him.  The walls were still glowing -- there were smaller lights emanating from some of the objects on his desk, and twinkling from some of the drawers -- but from the man himself, nothing.

Raizel frowned, and then glanced back briefly at Adon.

"I don't see anything," she said, jerking her wand across to cut off the spell.  "No spell, no curse.  Everything looks normal.  Do you have a wand, Jonas?" she asked the redhead.  "If not, you can use Adon's.  I'd like to see what it looks like if you try to cast a spell."

"Naw, I've got one," Jonas said, standing to search for it.  These days, when he wasn't in the office or in a situation where he might need to bluff, he rarely bothered to keep it close.  He finally found it in the pocket of his coat, which he hadn't actually put on but just brought with him out of habit, slinging it over the back of his chair without a second thought.

He picked it up, taking a moment to adjust his grip around it.  The smooth cedar had once felt so familiar, but these days, he didn't know what to think of it.  Raising it as if he were going to actually cast a spell with it just made him feel out of place. 

"This never works," he said awkwardly, glancing between the two Israelis.  Having to explain made him feel uncomfortable, even if they all knew what the end result would be.  "I mean, I've tried it before.  Nothing ever happens."

Raizel shook her head abruptly. "It doesn't matter," she cut in, and then sighed.  She gave him a tight, forced smile.  "Casting the spell doesn't matter," she repeated firmly.  "I only want to see what happens when you try.  If that's when the curse activates, or if --"  She cut herself off -- at a point in the sentence, Jonas thought, that was not reassuring -- and then gave him a smaller, more genuine smile.  "Either way, we will figure it out," she said firmly and confidently.  "Right now, we are just gathering information.  Finding clues."  Her smile grew more wry.  "Like you Aurors do, but nicely and without shouting."

Jonas snorted.  Cracking a grin, he risked a sidelong glance at his partner.  "We save the shouting for special occasions, usually," he said cheerfully, brandishing his wand.  "Alright.  You ready?"  He waited and then said, "Lumos."

It had been over a decade since he'd used magic so unthinkingly.  Back when he'd been younger -- when he'd really been a wizard, Jonas couldn't help but qualify it -- casting spells had come so naturally that he'd never bothered to think about them.  Magic had been second nature, Muggle-born or not.  Giving it up, forcing himself to not think in magical terms, had been a challenge.  It had taken him months before he'd been able to stop himself from reaching for a wand that wasn't there.  And once he'd come back again, when he'd finally decided to reenter the magical world, getting back into the habit of casting spells had been equally onerous.  He'd had to struggle.  To force it.  And he'd really only been able to get the hang of one or two, after months and months of discouraging practice, before he'd encountered the damned dagger and even those had stopped --

The tip of the wand lit up.

Jonas yelped and dropped it like it was on fire.

"What the hell?"  He jerked back and grabbed for the desk behind him; his heart was pounding and his knee had nearly buckled.  Steadying himself, he took a shaky breath, looking over at Adon with a panicked expression, his face gray.  "Did you see that?"

"We save the shouting for special occasions, usually."

"Yeh," Adon quipped back, with a sidelong glance to the blonde Israeli.  "And here you were thinking we weren't giving you the proper ceremony. 'Is this i--'" Adon, who had been talking through Jonas' casting, knowing well enough what to expect--and suspecting he'd be wholly ignored by all in the room anyhow--halted at the sudden burst of light.

"The f--" Adon stared between the wand on the floor and his partner in plerplexed alarm, ticking through the list of Things That Could Be Wrong.

1. Jonas was not--at the time Goleya was cast--under the effect of a spell.
2. Jonas was not hurt--except perhaps this knee might be protesting from that sudden movement.
3. Jonas was not...

Well, actually, those were the only two things he could think to be worried about.  A bit more secure in his relief, he cracked into a geniune grin and a bright, single laugh.  "Jon! You mean to tell me you've had your magic back and didn't even know it?!"

He must have. He couldn't imagine Jonas would keep this from him. And he couldn't think of a way Goleya could have restored anything a few moments ago.  But then there was the dagger. Which was still a contributing factor--an unknown variable, that was not in their control and possession. And was still...

The victorious throb in his stomach abated as he considered the next round of assessments.

He frowned. "But how--when was the last time you cast something? And..." He looked at the wand, unable to keep from grinning once more as he stooped down to pick it up and hand it back to his partner.  "And--moloch, serious? Do something else--" he thought a moment. "Cast a patronus--or..." he shrugged "Summon that beer," he said, noting Raizel's unaccepted beer on the desk.

The red-haired man's face was ashen as he clung to his desk.  He reached out to take the wand from his friend, his hand unsteady, looking down at it as he closed his fingers tentatively around it.

"No, I --"  He broke off, clenching his teeth.  His chest felt tight, as if some weight was pushing down on him so heavily that he thought something might explode.  Helplessly, he looked from Adon to the wand and back to Adon again, his expression pleading as he tightened his fingers around the wood.

"There's no reason to rush it," Raizel cut in suddenly, her words crisp and precise.  Jonas started and looked back at her; he'd almost forgotten she was there.  The younger woman sighed, and then gave him a smile.

"If you were under the effects of a curse, it isn't currently affecting you," she said, obviously making an attempt to gentle the words.  She smiled reassuringly again, her gaze flickering briefly to Adon, and then back to him again.  "The best thing we can do is test it again.  If it comes back or it affects you again, then we'll know.  So you cast, and we'll see," she said, gesturing for him to go ahead.  "But breathe.  Relax," she instructed him matter-of-factly, arching her eyebrows.  "If it doesn't work, we will fix it."

If the instructions hadn't been enough to get him to let go of the tension, the familiar words did it.  Jonas let out the breath he'd been holding in an almost snort.  He cast a rueful look over at Adon, then flashed the blond woman a tight smile.  "You Beit Gaddol lot seem to be big on 'just fixing' things, aren't you?" he asked dryly, adjusting his grip on the wand.  "Alright.  Let's just --"

He broke off.  The beer bottle was sitting on the desk.  Jonas took a deep breath, let it out again, and then straightened up, taking a step away from his desk.  The Summoning Charm.  Accio.  He knew that one.  A dozen years ago, it had come as naturally as anything.  He'd practiced it a few times before he'd lost his magic, but it had always felt tentative.

But now he'd breathe.  Focus.  Relax.  Jonas rolled his shoulders back, tried to ignore the shaky feeling in his stomach, and raised his wand to cast.  "Accio," he recited firmly.

The beer bottle rose from the table and shot at his chest.  Jonas almost forgot to raise a hand to catch it; the eventual interception was more like preventing it from hitting him than gracefully plucking it from the air, but he was grinning from ear to ear nonetheless.

The weight that had been so heavy on his shoulders seemed to suddenly evaporate.  Jonas reached back for the desk, but it was more in relief this time; he was still beaming as he passed the beer to the blonde woman.

"Here," he said, handing it over to her.  "And thank you.  It's --"  He looked to Adon, then back to Raizel, and then to his friend once more, a huge smile on his face.  "Thanks," he said simply, the relief evident in his voice.  "I dunno if -- I just -- ...Thanks."

That helpless, anxious look had Adon instantly feel guilty.  Guilty for what? He caught himself--for feeling relieved? For laughing?

Adon couldn't help it. The thought of his partner with magic again, with little-to-no need to weaponize taxi cabs to have his back--well, it wasn't such a bad thought.

But Raizel's even, commanding tone didn't help.  Always the rapidfire commands.  He gave a slight sigh, biting his tongue as she detailed a list of procedures like she'd done this before.  Still. It wasn't such a bad thought.

"Accio."

Adon, smiling, watched the trajectory of the bottle, traced it all the way back to the chest of a ... very unprepared Jonas.  Surely--in a moment, Jonas would start moving, and-- Adon's body shifted to a tense ready to intercept, but Jonas' flailing seemed to have succeeded.  Obstacle--quite literally--averted, Adon shook his head in amusement, giving a deep laugh.

"Yeh--thanks," Adon chimed in, feeling the elation beginning to kick in. Jonas Trevelyan had god-damned magic.  "Payment sufficient for you, Raizie?"

Raizel's eyebrows shot up at the nickname, and she cast her former schoolmate a haughty look, but it was clear the sudden surge of relief in the room was contagious.  She smiled wanly, accepting the offered drink and raising her wand to pop the bottle cap off.

"We have been over this already," she said nicely, smiling back at Adon as she raised it to take a tentative sip.  "I would never ask payment from someone who is so kind and good."  She arched her eyebrows over the top of the bottle, giving him a pointed look that was far more jest than barb.  "You, however, segen mishne…if you ever require another favor, then maybe we will have to talk."

Jonas was clearly not paying very much attention to the ongoing conversation.  He had reverted to practicing his newly reacquired magical prowess, illuminating the tip of his wand and then nixing it once more with alternating commands of "Lumos" and "Nox."  Still grinning, he pointed his wand at the stapler on his desk, summoning it with another firm "Accio!"

Sipping her beer, Raizel shifted to lean against the wall, watching the wizard practice with a relaxed expression.  It was not so strange, this feeling of having done something right, but it was a good one.  As much as she might jibe at him -- as much as it had been ten long years since either had really called the other a friend -- she didn't think that she would have really demanded much of her former schoolmate, even if he hadn't said the right things when they'd gone to dinner the other night.  Sometimes, it was nice to be on the right side.

That was not the only business that had been brought up, though.  Raizel glanced at Adon, and then carefully back at Jonas.  Unless he was a master of multitasking, the red-haired Auror wasn't paying the rest of the room any attention; he had yet to stop beaming, and appeared to be entirely fixated on trying to make his paperclips levitate. 

"I did look into the other matter that we discussed, too, Donnie," she said, shifting into Hebrew as she looked to Adon with a frown.  "With Topuluk.  Is it safe to talk about it here?  With him?"

"Oh, you are too kind," Adon said primly, drinking from his bottle and shaking his head.  Watching Jonas flick his wand like some new-fangled toy--and a boyish grin to match.  Adon considered, a moment, from Jonas' perspective--the relief of regaining an innate power that, at one time, had felt like another appendage.  The actual ability, now, to truly fit into the world he'd consciously chosen to reenter.  The security of it.

It wasn't just that Jonas could watch Adon's back now--be an equally paired partnership.  It was that Jonas could regain a sense of belonging, a sense of--

Well, this was all getting too heavy for an afternoon.  Adon took a deep sip of his beer.

Coming up for breath, Adon gave a single laugh as Jonas cast an exuberant "Lumos."  He settled against the bare space beside Raizel.  "Thanks."  Even though, technically, Raizel hadn't done anything. Her visit had just made apparent something that already was.  Jonas had been cured before she even came.  And what a fool he'd been the whole time. Goleya.

It took Adon a moment to catch the shift--the abrupt change in language, and topic.  Adon's face, formerly a pleased, self-satisfied expression, grew pinched.  "Yeh," he spoke in English, with a thin voice.  He was beginning to feel sick, this heavy feeling in his stomach--maybe the beer. "Yeh, it's safe for him to hear."