A/N Welcome all to Book Two in Jennifer Craw Series One (The Voldemort Years.) If you've just run across this, the first book is called Jennifer Craw and the Phoenix Wand. In this book, you will get more background on Jennifer and Truth Seeking in general. Although it's more of an adventure, it has the same tone as the first book and is a fairly quick read; enjoy!

Written in 2002, before JK book 5 came out. Revision notes: 1-2016: basic typos and grammar fixes.

Chapter One

Truth Seeker

It had been so terribly cold that night. Jennifer Craw, barely seven, clutched weakly to the broom. Her father, who had insisted that he would be the one to ride double, had his arms cropped as tightly around her as he could and still manage the broom. He talked to her encouragingly as the long hours progressed over the black ocean. She had very little light; the Night Shroud over them blocked out even the moonlight, and Jennifer couldn't make out any constellations. In front of them rode her mother, her cloak flapping in the wind. Never did she slow their rapid pace, not once through the night. Never once did they look back.

Jennifer knew that something very terrible had happened, something that her father had had to do that made them leave everything behind without a change of clothes, toy or pack. She knew they weren't going back. Her arms ached, she was weak, and her legs kept falling asleep as she shifted from one to the other.

"Daddy, I can't hold on anymore. I can't," she insisted.

"You must, Jen-girl, we have no choice but to go on," he told her once more. Never had she been so miserable. She was certain that the sea would never end and that morning would never come.

It had been just after they arrived at a small town in Connecticut that Jennifer was told she was never allowed to use magic in public anymore. Inside the house it was a whole different story. Her mother had quickly gotten a Muggle job of some sort, going by the name of Brown, while her father stayed at home and taught her more magic than she had ever even known existed.

She supposed her father had loved her. He had spent so much time with her mercilessly drilling her with spells; he was a very difficult taskmaster. Her mother seemed to have mixed feelings about the lessons, almost as if she were afraid of them. But every time she did speak out, Thomas Craw would say, "There are no evil spells, Alice, only evil wizards," and kept right on teaching her. By the time Jennifer was eleven, she knew more about dark magic than anyone three times her age.

After the first year since their escape, her father's demeanor had relaxed somewhat, often telling them they were safe. It was almost as if, Jennifer thought, he was actually trying to convince himself instead of his family. But even with this reassurance, when the Owl came to accept Jennifer into the best school of wizardry in the world, he turned it away.

"But Dad, I don't want to go to the Pittsburgh school. I want to go to Hogwarts like you and mother did…"

"You'll go to Whitebridge and enough said about it, Jen-girl. Just remember what I told you about following their rules, and never ever cast anything I taught you unless your life is at stake. I'd imagine they're throw you out if they knew all that you knew about dark magic."

"Throw me out because of the spells I know? Why would they do that?" Jennifer asked.

"Because people are still afraid, Jen-girl, of what can happen when a wizard goes bad. Even here, they are afraid that he'll come back." Her father pulled back his sleeve displaying a faded mark that was barely visible, but there… still there.

"Always remember that mark, Jen-girl. Beware of it, but never fear it. Fear will only make it easier for those that want to harm you," he had told her.

As a young girl, she had never understood why her father could say that, especially after picking up his family without a moment's notice and fleeing across the ocean. It did not occur to her until she was much older that sometimes it took a lot more courage to run than to stay.

Jennifer pulled out the memory strand and tossed it into the Pensieve before locking the bowl in her oversized Puzzlebox, trying to refocus on where she was here and now. Glancing at the clock on the mantle, she hopped off her bed and went downstairs.

Audacious Belle stood over a cauldron humming, testing the brew's flavor with a wooden spoon. She looked rather deceptively like an energetic grandma, her apron lopsided from having come untied. In reality, she was one of the best Aurors in the States; one of those witches that helped track down dark wizards and bring them to justice. She had been a good host to the young professor, and a good teacher.

"Done Audi, at least for now," Jennifer said tiredly.

"Good, good. Learn anything new from sorting through your past? Come here, child, try this."

"Not really. Just old memories that my year at Hogwarts had already brought to surface," Jennifer said, tasting the brew.

"Well? How is it?" Audi asked.

Well, Jennifer thought, she knew better than to lie to Audi.

"This is some of the most repulsive stuff I've ever tasted. Please get rid of it before Bertie Botts discovers you've invented a new flavor." Audi cackled madly, enjoying herself.

"I know, it's quite terrible, I agree, but no matter. I'll fix it."

"Why you old hag, you set me up! You just wanted to see if I'd tell you the truth about it," Jennifer scowled.

"It wasn't too long ago that you'd have lied about it, Jen-girl," Audi pointed out, calling her by her childhood nickname. She then added a pinch of mugroot to the mix, and the brew turned from a muddy green to a golden brown. "There, that's better."

In the two months Jennifer had been training with the old witch, it hadn't felt to her like they had accomplished more than stripping all the mirrors out of her rooms and answering questions about practically anything that had to do with her. The annoying part was that she wasn't allowed to ask anything in return, using her innate talents to discern the answers on her own. The talent they shared was an extremely rare one among their kind, and not one taken lightly. It was the ability to read more than expressions and words from a person's face; to see the truth behind those thoughts and sometimes the emotions behind them.

Audi constantly drilled her with questions, which in some ways resembled a strange, nonsensical game. Jennifer was asked everything from what her favorite color was, to what did Ratfly eat for dinner, to why did she hate Lucius Malfoy so much. All the while her teacher sat and looked at her while thinking the oddest things imaginable, and every now and then asking Jennifer what she was actually thinking of instead of what they were talking about. Sometimes they were easy, and sometimes she couldn't read them at all. In all honesty, she was beginning to doubt whether or not she'd be any good at this strange, innate ability of hers.

Truth Seeking is what they called it in many circles, after those licensed to use it; but in fact it was just a sense of seeing through perceptions and even magic to get to the truth behind a person. Licensed Truth Seekers had the added benefit of being able to testify in court on behalf of or against an individual, and were often used as private investigators.

Jennifer Craw wasn't a counselor or investigator though; she was a teacher. However, when at the end of her first year teaching at Hogwarts an opportunity came for her to spend the summer training to pass the exam to get a practicing license, she had jumped on it. Oh, she'd known that the main reason that she'd been invited were that some of her friends back in Britain wanted her out in the middle of nowhere to keep her safe. Jennifer had made many enemies. Still, it was still too rare of an opportunity to pass up.

"Ok, try again," Audi insisted, holding the spoon up to her lips.

"Better," Jennifer admitted. "But it's too hot for brew today. How can you stand the heat in here?"

Audi smiled at her then took another sip. Then she paused, cocking her head to the side. As Jennifer listened, she heard the hoot of an owl. Jennifer leapt up and sprinted up the stairs, taking them two at a time as she skidded to her room, opening her bedroom window. A large barn owl dropped off a tightly corded bundle of letters into her hands then perched on the windowsill.

"Thank you, Fluke!" she said, petting Audi's owl. She commanded the knot holding the letters to untie.

"Don't keep all that mail to yourself, Jen-girl! I want to hear what your friends have to say as well!" Audi hollered from downstairs. Jennifer rolled her eyes, sticking her head out into the hall.

"You'd just as soon hear from the Muggle postman and I know it."

"Yes, yes! I think I'll get that letter I sent myself today," Audi agreed. "You should really take my advice and get to know a Muggle postman. Easy way to keep track of your neighbors' going's on. One look tells all with them Muggles, their thoughts are as thin as paper."

"You are such a gossip! What does it really matter what the girl next door does in her spare time? Oh, Audi, this one for you looks official... it must be work," Jennifer said, quickly handing it over. Jennifer shuffled through her own mail with a sigh. It was not what she was looking for, she frowned. She opened the one from Hermione.

"Fluke still upstairs?" Audi asked. Jennifer looked up to see Audi looking unusually thoughtful.

"Someone else turned up dead?" Jennifer asked. Audi glanced at the younger witch again then got up.

"I'll be back shortly. If this is like the others the trail will have gotten quite cold already, but I can have a look." Audi threw down her apron and put on her dark cloak, Apparating away.

Jennifer frowned. Audi had been tracking this serial murderer the entire time Jennifer had been here. Every time he'd kill another wizard, they were found dead and cold with not a mark upon them. They were always alone. No one ever saw anything. Audi Belle had her work cut out for her.

It was the first week of August, almost Jennifer's birthday even, with only a week and a half before her scheduled return to school. Jennifer frowned. She was going to have to go in and take the test soon, she thought, and if she passed, take her vow confirming her as a licensed Truth Seeker.

And then… and then what, she pondered. Was it only three months ago that Voldemort had cast the Killing Curse on her… and failed? Only once before had anyone lived when he had cast that spell. It was just a year after her family had fled that Voldemort, one of the most sinister dark wizards of the modern age, had lost all his power against a young Harry Potter, protected by his mother's sacrifice. And now, Voldemort was rising to power and she too was on his enemy list, the second to have escaped his wrath. He had bade his servants to kill her, but with a court Truth Seeker's license in hand, she would be able to testify against them and what she read in their faces, accepted as fact and not hearsay. Sighing softly, Jennifer went back to review her court procedure notes. She still had a lot of studying to do if she wanted to ace that test.