"So, let's go over the plan again." Marcus said, as he watched his wife transform Hermione Granger into someone else entirely.

"I'm Isobel, Morag's older sister, meeting up with you two for a drink. You and Morag go in." Hermione repeated, dutifully. "I wait until the song changes, and then I slip in, and sit with you at the table, while Morag...does something, I'm not sure what."

"I entertain a load of drunken Scotsmen." Morag replied with a laugh, putting a final charm on Hermione's nose and then tapping it with a finger.

"Don't stab anyone." Marcus reminded Morag, waving a finger at her.

"Take all the fun out of it, why don't you?" Morag pouted, eyes gleaming. "Mind the English, I'll handle the entertainment. I'm the heiress of Clan MacDougal, I can distract them easily."

Marcus rolled his eyes at her, before holding an arm out for each woman. "Let's get this over with, ladies."

The Blue Dove was everything Hermione expected it to be, and somehow more. It reminded her of the Three Broomsticks a little, with the bright, merry light from the windows and the clatter of glasses, but the strains of music made her toes want to tap, distracting her from both her nerves, and the slight nauseous feeling from being side-alonged. Marcus and Moag entered, and the song that was being played creaked to a stop and changed, Hermione, as Isobel, waited only a moment before following Marcus into the pub.

Morag was indeed distracting all of them, apparently having her own theme song in the bar, and declaring everyone could have one drink, and 'not a dram more!' Letting her friend be swamped by grateful patrons, she followed Marcus to a table at the side, where a man sat. Unlike Mundungus Fletcher, the man they were meeting wasn't particularly shabby or looking out of place. She would have never known he was some sort of spy contact for Marcus.

"Tapper." Marcus said, leaning back in his chair.

"Flint." The man said with a nod. "You taking both sisters now?"

Hermione wrinkled her nose at the insinuation, but Marcus just shook his head as a barmaid brought over a flagon of cider for each of them, then kept walking, delivering the same to the next table.

"Don't get any ideas, Tapper. Izzy is above your paygrade." Marcus admonished. "Now did you contact me for the free drink, or do you actually have a lead?"

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, Flint." Tapperluke said with a chuckle. "I got your info. Bit of a shock, though. I thought the old snake bit it in the battle, but…" He reached into a satchel at his side and pulled out several photographs.

Hermione felt her throat tighten as she watched the image. It was Severus Snape, of that there could be no doubt. Oddly, though, he was dressed in a suit, instead of traditional wizarding robes. She watched as the image looped, and Severus glared at something in a window, turned and moved to walk the corner. Percy had told her, Morag had confirmed it, but somewhere in her heart of hearts, she didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to believe that he had abandoned her - but then, what could she expect? She had abandoned him too. She had left him bleeding out on the floor. She had left him first, and she would be the first to seek him out. She'd make it right, even if he wanted nothing to do with her. After all, Harry had already thought her an old maid, would it be so horrible to be alone if he wanted it that way? Even as she thought that, though, she knew the answer was yes.

Mechanically, she took a drink of the cider, having to hide her wince at the strength of it, forcing herself to pay attention to what was being said at the table.

"You're not trying to take him in, are you Flint?" The source was asking, eyes narrowed. "I don't hold with that."

"Do I look like a Hufflepuff, Tapper?" Marcus asked, looming slightly over the table. "Do you know what that man did for Morag and I? No , this is a personal quest." He smiled wickedly. "Now tell me where you found him, or I can call Morag over here and she can ask you. Trust me, Tapper, you don't want that."

Tapperluke swallowed hard, and pushed a piece of paper across to Marcus. "Here's the address. He's in Australia."

"Australia?" Hermione repeated, and then took a swig of the potent alcohol.

"Yeah." Tapperluke said with a nod. "Went pretty muggle too."

"Thanks, Tapper." Marcus said, watching Hermione's face out of the corner of his eye. "I'll tell Malcolm you get another drink." He shoved a velvet pouch of galleons at the man.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Flint." Tapperluke replied with a little salute. The man took his drink and moved to the bar, ignoring the brawl that had broken out in the center of the floor.

Marcus looked at Hermione. "So what's in Australia? You just about turned green."

Hermione swallowed hard, hearing the strange voice that was not her own go hoarse as she answered. "My parents."

It took twenty minutes for Marcus to wrangle Morag out of the middle of the brawl that she had somehow instigated, and another fifteen minutes for the laughing, smiling woman to settle down enough to do a shot of whisky and sit down to hear what they had found out, and even then she was practically bouncing in a way that made Hermione smile, when all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and weep in a corner.

"So, what have we got?" She chirped.

"Australia." Marcus said after a moment. "Isn't Katrina in Australia?"

Morag waved a hand. "Kat lives in New Zealand, but she has a penthouse in Sydney. We can use that no problem, but Kat will have to go out and be seen with Ludo." She scrunched up her nose, ignoring Marcus's growl. "I'll dash him off an owl."

"Who is Katrina?" Hermione asked, curiously.

"Older sister." Morag said by way of explanation. "Well, oldest. You're the middle, of course." The look the redhead leveled at her reminded Hermione that she was wearing the guise of another MacDougal sister.

Hermione opened her mouth to ask why Morag was heiress if she had two older sisters, but then decided discretion was the better part of valour, and that it would look rather stupid for Isobel MacDougal to be asking her sister why she wasn't in the running, and closed it again. Really, even asking who Kat was had been a mistake, but how was she to know? Did it matter if it meant she got to see Severus again?

"Relax." Marcus advised. "We'll stay here a bit, let Morag sing a song or two to the drunken populace like she does whenever she visits, so it doesn't look suspicious, and then we'll prepare to leave. Did you take off, like I suggested?"

"Yes." Hermione admitted, even though it had pained her to do so. She hadn't taken any time off work since her failed attempts to restore her parents' memories. She had been a little too good at removing herself, and any attempt to restore their memories she could attempt would have done too much harm. Sometimes she really was too smart for her own good.

"Good." Marcus said, turning to the low stage with a smile, where as he predicted, Morag had co-opted the microphone and was singing a low, slow ballad about love and loss that made Hermione's heart hurt, and Marcus's eyes shine.