Harry Potter sighed irritably, unconsciously tapping his foot on the white marble floor of the International Apparition Center. Seriously, how late could someone possibly be when magical travel was essentially instantaneous? Harry knew that Americans were notoriously rude, but honestly. The IAC was buzzing with witches and wizards coming and going, the air was constantly filled with muffled conversations and impatient people. In other circumstances, Harry would have been on high alert, in such a large and unknown crowd, but he knew that Ron and Seamus were patrolling and keeping watch for him.
Harry growled in frustration and looked at his watch again. Thirty minutes! The man was thirty bloody minutes late. It had been galling enough that Harry had been forced to ask for international assistance, but for that assistance to be so late was just unacceptable. Harry would be sure to include this tardiness in his report, but he doubted the Americans would give any part of a shit. They never cared about anything in Britain.
"Are you Harry Potter?" came a whispered voice.
Harry whirled around, but no one was close enough to have said that.
"Oh come now," chuckled the voice, "You didn't expect me to just come up to you, did you?"
Harry sneered.
"You can whisper back," the voice said.
"Of course I expected you to come up to me," growled Harry.
"Oh."
There was a long pause.
"Where are you?" asked Harry.
"Sitting on a certain bench, currently trying to decide if you're an idiot or not," the voice replied casually.
Harry felt an angry flush take his face. "Now see here-"
"Not here, if you don't mind," replied the voice calmly, "At your ministry."
Harry took a deep, calming breath. "All right then. At my office."
"Perfect," replied the voice, "Who's your Keeper?"
"Is this really the time to talk about Quidditch?" Harry replied nastily.
"No. I mean your Secret-Keeper," the voice said, not rising at all to Harry's bait, "You do keep your private office under Fidelius, don't you?"
Harry was brought up short. "Er, no. I don't."
"Oh."
"You can just follow me back," said Harry, turning to leave, "I assume you can do at least that much."
The voice didn't reply.
"Oi," Harry said, turning back to the room, "Are you coming?"
"Sorry, sorry," said the voice, "Still trying to decide if you're an idiot or not."
"What are the chances?" Harry asked, sarcastically.
"60/40, leaning towards idiot," replied the voice airily, "Lead on, Mister Potter."
Harry felt another hot, angry flush run through him. Today was going just fine.
Eric Ogden sighed to himself as Harry Potter, apparently the best magical police officer in Britain, walked out of the IAC. Sure, England wasn't America, and Ogden was sure he didn't know the British protocols, but an important government official just out like that? Maybe Potter had some people patrolling around, but he'd seemed pretty vulnerable. Then again, perhaps Potter was just that good at dueling and he was in no actual danger.
Idiot or not?
Once Potter was out of the IAC, Ogden got up and followed him. Right outside the doors, Potter was joined by two men, one red-headed and one brown-haired, who were obviously his subordinates. Ogden was again confused. Shouldn't Potter's other officers try and figure out who was following their boss? Ogden hadn't presented any credentials, so Potter would have no reason to trust him. But apparently, Potter was just going to lead Ogden straight to his private office. On the one hand, this move seemed criminally naive, but then again, Potter could have contingencies in place that Ogden didn't know about. Ogden wasn't sure what those would actually be, but he supposed they could exist.
After a brisk walk through London, Potter and his men turned down a seemingly random alley. Well, maybe Ogden would get to see some of these contingencies now. He cast a preemptive Disillusionment Charm on himself, along with a slightly over-powered Notice-Me-Not Charm, then cast an illusion of himself a few feet in front of his actual position. The illusion was keyed to his physical movement, an honestly fantastic discovery, so Ogden didn't have to worry about making it look real. This all took less than two seconds. Ogden sighed that the Portkey lag was worse than he'd expected.
Thus defended, Ogden approached the end of the alley, his standard wand in his left hand, his right hand exchanging his Charm wand for his Curse wand. Soon enough, the illusion reached where Potter had turned out of Ogden's sight. No spells were cast, no traps were triggered, but the illusion wasn't dispelled either.
Ogden frowned. Did Potter realize the deception? It wasn't the most ridiculous theory, especially considering the accounts of Potter's abnormal abilities, and it would raise Ogden's estimation of Potter heavily. After five seconds or so of silence, Ogden mimed looking around, so his illusion would do the same. Nothing. Ogden quickly re-drew his Charm wand with his right hand and canceled the spell that connected the illusion's movement to his own, then approached the intersection of alleys. He flattened himself against the wall of whatever building created the alley, then cast an Extrasensory Charm on himself. Thus prepared, Ogden took a deep breath and glanced around the corner.
The alley was empty, save for quite a conspicuous telephone box.
Ogden sighed and canceled all of his spells. He walked up to the telephone box and opened it. When nothing happened, Ogden walked inside and pulled out some coins. Before putting anything into the machine, however, Ogden pulled out his Ward wand and cast a standard Diagnostics Charm. He read the standard Non-Magical Repelling Charm, an interesting Malintentus Ward, and finally a laughably weak Confundus Charm to trigger with the Malintentus. The Ward seemed to be keyed to one of the buttons, and upon further inspection, Ogden chuckled that the 5 button had been replaced with a miniscule ward-stone. No wonder the Confundus was so weak.
Ogden pushed the 5 button and was greeted by a standard mechanical voice asking payment. Ogden shrugged and put a random number of coins into the phone's slot, then pushed 5 again. He was greeted with a few coins falling into a little trough, and a radically different voice welcoming him to the Ministry of Magic.
"What is your name, Honored Guest?" the cool, feminine voice asked.
"Eric Ogden," Ogden replied, clearly.
"What is your purpose here at the Ministry?" was the next question.
"Here to see Harry Potter, ma'am," Ogden said.
"For what purpose?" asked the voice again.
"I'm working with him," Ogden said, getting slightly irritated.
"Very well," the voice said serenely, "Please attach the proffered badge visibly to your person, and remove your wand for inspection."
Ogden heard a small, metallic plink and retrieved a small badge that read Eric Ogden, Collaborator. He cast an underpowered Sticking Charm on the badge and placed it directly in the center of his chest. There was a sudden whirring and the floor under Ogden's feet began to slowly descend. Ogden quickly glanced out of the window, to make sure no Non-Magical was walking by. A magical elevator in the middle of downtown London seemed...less than secure, but perhaps there was a larger Non-Magical Repelling Charm over the whole alley.
After a few minutes, Ogden walked out of the elevator into a large foyer made entirely out of black marble bricks. Magicals passed by on all sides, jostling Ogden on their way to work. The massive foyer led to a large, circular desk, made of some sort of white wood, with quite a few receptionists behind it. Ogden walked up to one of them and cleared his throat. Normally, Ogden was a patient man, but his collaboration with the head Auror seemed a bit more important than politeness.
"Yes, sir?" asked the receptionist brusquely, "What can I do for you?"
"Where's the Auror Department?" asked Ogden, gesturing to his little badge.
"Ah, Mr Ogden," the receptionist said, standing to bow, "Welcome to Britain!" She faltered. "We were told that Mr Potter would be with you."
"Ah, well," said Ogden airily, "I figured it would be safer to come separately. Less chance of being noticed."
The receptionist nodded. "Very well, right this way." She began walking towards a wall of elevators, off of the main foyer.
"Did you want to verify my identity?" Ogden asked, slowly removing his standard wand to show her.
The receptionist turned back. "Oh, right, of course sir." She walked back over and took his wand. "Please, step through here." She gestured to something that vaguely resembled a mundane metal detector.
Ogden walked through, and was given his wand on the other side. "That's it?"
The receptionist smiled. "That's right. Please, follow me, sir." She walked off towards the elevator.
Ogden shrugged. There would definitely be better security going into the Auror Department. Ogden and the receptionist got in the elevator and soon arrived at Level 2, where the Auror office was. Ogden's eyes glanced manically around to take in every nook and cranny of the department, as the receptionist led him towards Potter's office. The desks were separated by task, three to five desks per task, and most of the desks were empty. Ogden nodded in approval. Towards the back, he saw Potter's office, and silently cast a diagnostic charm. Ah, yes. Antimagicae, Anti-Apparition, Anti-Portus, this was what an office should have protecting it.
Ogden was led to the office door, and the receptionist knocked. "Mr Ogden to see you, sir?"
"Send him in," came the terse reply.
Ogden waited for the inevitable doorknob curse to be lifted, but the receptionist simply smiled at him and left. Ogden frowned. He cast another diagnostic charm on the doorknob, but came up with nothing. So, either Potter had no doorknob protection, an idiotic move, or Ogden couldn't sense it, a brilliant move.
"What's taking so long?" Potter asked.
"Trying to decide if you're an idiot or not," Ogden replied, glowering at the doorknob.
Ogden heard a swear from inside the office and the door swung open. Potter's gangly redhead was standing at the door. "Well come in then."
Ogden shrugged. The doorknob was moot. He strode into the office and tried to take in everything. There were a few newspapers on the walls, a large wooden desk in the middle of the room, and three others in the room besides Ogden. Potter, the gangly redhead, and a woman with bushy brown hair, who Ogden thought he recognized, but couldn't be sure. Potter was sitting, looking frustrated, and the other two stood behind him on either side. The whole picture vividly reminded Ogden of the first time he'd been brought to meet a mob boss.
"Auror Potter," said Ogden, extending a hand to shake.
"Sheriff Ogden," replied Potter, giving the hand a firm shake, "And these are-"
"Your two associates," nodded Ogden, taking a seat, "Let's talk about the case."
The other two both sort of huffed in annoyance, but Potter waved them down. He pulled out a sheaf of papers and laid them out on the desk. "So this is what we know."
Ogden glanced down at the papers.
"There have been a lot of recent reports of people going missing, or acting strangely," Potter explained, "And we've begun to take notice of this trend."
Ogden nodded. "Are you thinking it's a serial Imperio type case?"
Harry glanced at the other two. "Yes, that's the assumption as of now." He pointed to a few of the papers. "What's interesting, though, is that the perpetrator only takes a few people from each town."
Ogden blinked. "How many people have been taken?"
"Fifteen, over five towns and villages," replied the woman.
Ogden blanched. "You let this go on that long?"
"We didn't even receive reports until five days ago," bristled Potter, "And by then, ten people were already gone."
"And we've been looking for ever since," said the redhead unnecessarily, "So back off, mate."
Ogden shrugged. "So, what's the MO? How does the perp choose his victims?"
Potter pointed at the papers again. "He seems to be going for people on the fringes of society."
"Doesn't make sense to me," said the redhead, "What use is it to Imperio beggars?"
"It means this isn't a short-term spree," replied Ogden, "The perp's planning some big score, and needs all the bodies he can get."
"That degree of control over so many people," said the woman, "Shouldn't be possible."
"Well, what other conclusion do you have?" Ogden asked, glancing up at her sharply.
"Er, well, we," the woman stammered, "We're still working on it."
"Right." Ogden straightened and turned to the redhead. "Check with the people closest to the first victims, see if they've come back to their homes and families."
"Why?" asked the redhead, "And we don't take orders from you, bloody yank."
Ogden sighed and rubbed his forehead. "As your associate said, we need to confirm what degree of control he has over his victims. The first ones to be Imperioed would be the first ones to break out of it."
"Right," said the redhead slowly.
"Meanwhile, we'll go around and see what he could be gunning for to need such a large crew," said Ogden, gesturing to Potter and the woman.
"I still don't take orders from you," sneered the redhead.
"Ron, just do it," sighed Potter, "We called him here to help."
Ron, apparently, deflated and walked out of the office.
"Why do you keep him around?" Ogden asked, "He's definitely an idiot."
"He's also my husband," sniffed the woman.
"And my best friend," said Potter.
"I'm sorry," said Ogden dryly, "So what could our perp be after?"
"Gringotts?" Potter suggested.
"What's that?" Ogden asked.
"The bank," replied the woman, "But it's incredibly difficult to get into."
"It's incredibly difficult to Imperio fifteen people," sighed Ogden, "Something tells me our perp doesn't really care about the difficulty of breaking into a bank."
"Well, when we went in," said the woman, "We only barely got out alive."
Ogden frowned. "When did you break into a bank?"
"When we were seventeen," replied Potter.
"You expect me to believe that a bank that was broken into by two seventeen year olds is in any way secure?" Ogden asked incredulously, "Seriously?"
"Er, well," Potter began, "They're-"
"No matter," said Ogden, "We just need to get the local Aurors to be on the look-out for all of the Imperio victims. When they see them, we'll just Apparate in and take them here for curse-breaking."
"We're the Aurors," replied Potter.
"Right," said Ogden, "But there are local Auror Departments in the towns, right? They don't have to be big."
"There aren't," said Potter, "Just us here in London."
Ogden's eyes went wide. "What?! That's it?!"
"The previous Minister, er, de-funded the Auror Department," the woman explained, "And we've managed to build it back up to this, but we get almost no help from the Ministry."
Ogden frowned. "First off, why would someone de-fund the Auror Department. Second, why would they continue to not fund it after that moron was removed from office?"
"Well, Scrimgeour got it to about double what it was, but that was only with emergency war-time powers, and it drastically shrank after Voldemort was killed," said Potter.
"Do British people not understand how important magical law enforcement is?" Ogden asked, condescendingly, "How many aurors work under you?"
"About twenty," replied Potter, "We've got about ten more training to become official Aurors."
"Well, call in whatever reinforcements you can," sighed Ogden, "We're going to need a lot of eyes on this one."
Over the next few days, the redheaded idiot canvassed what he could, and Potter started trying to commandeer a large enough volunteer base to keep an eye out for the Imperio victims. None of the victims had returned, at least none that the idiot could locate, so Ogden began assuming that their perp had another trick up his sleeve, aside from simply Imperio. Potter's fame was rather more successful at generating volunteer support than Potter was at administrating that support, but the bushy haired woman was an invaluable help. Her ability to micro-manage people awed Ogden.
Meanwhile, Ogden focused on acquainting himself with magical Britain and where its valuables were. There was infuriatingly little information on anything relevant, with personal fortunes being off the books, and Gringotts being fiercely protective of literally everything. The more Ogden investigated what a heist could legitimately hope to obtain, the more he became convinced that a simple heist wasn't what the perp was after.
A small, elite team would be best for heists in magical Britain. A ward-breaker who would also act as look-out, and two to three people to quickly collect everything in the house. A large group of people who don't have their own minds couldn't possibly be useful for stealing. Ogden was annoyed that the Aurors didn't realize that. Not to mention, if the perp was able to retain his victims after Imperio was off, the payout he'd be looking for would have to be enormous.
It was puzzling.
Now that people knew what to look for, more and more reports were coming in of Imperio victims all over Britain. If the perp retained everyone, Ogden reckoned they were facing a group of maybe thirty or forty. The more Ogden looked for some gain that was only attainable by massive force, the more he despaired of finding anything at all. There was just nothing to gain by adding more and more people to a team.
Perhaps a week after his arrival in Britain, Ogden was sitting in Potter's office poring over the missing person reports, hoping he'd missed some sort of connection, when the redheaded idiot ran in, out of breath.
"Harry!" he exclaimed, "We've a sighting!"
Ogden leapt out of his chair and was out the door before Potter had even donned his outer robes. Ogden reached the Apparition point for the Ministry, then sighed impatiently and tapped his foot while waiting for the others to follow. As Potter and his two lieutenants walked across the foyer, Ogden had to admit that they cut an imposing figure. Potter walked with purpose, all business, and the other two filled out the space behind him well enough. The long robes flowed impressively in the air, and flapped about with the speed of their walk.
Maybe Ogden would invest in a long coat of some sort back home.
"Where to?" Ogden asked the redhead as the group arrived.
"Edinburgh town square," replied Harry shortly.
"Can I side-along someone?" Ogden asked, "I've never been there."
Both men looked at the bushy haired woman, who sighed. "All right then."
Ogden nodded his thanks and rested a hand on her shoulder. As he felt the magic close in around them, preparing to transport them, Ogden turned with the woman, trying to aid her in her attempt.
With a small pop, Ogden and the woman arrived right in the middle of a bustling town square. Ogden immediately looked around anxiously, worried they might have been seen, and grabbed his Charms wand in his pocket and silently cast two slightly overpowered Disillusionment Charms.
"You should have told me we'd be landing in the open," Ogden hissed, "I'd have done this before we left!"
"Firstly," the woman said huffily, "I didn't expect to get here with one jump. Second," she said, no doubt wagging a finger at Ogden, "I figured out how to imbue directed magical effects with spells. We arrived silently and undetectable."
"Bullshit," replied Ogden, looking at where the witch probably was with disbelief, "No one has figured that out yet."
"It is not," replied the woman hotly, "I'm currently writing a paper on the subject."
"Prove it, then," replied Ogden, "Since your colleagues aren't here yet."
"Very well." After a moment of nothing, she said, "See?"
Ogden sighed and canceled the Disillusionment Charm on the both of them. "Obviously not." The woman looked put out. "Here, just Apparate directly in front of me." He turned to face the rest of the square.
"Fine."
Suddenly, Ogden noticed that she was standing in front of him. "Whoa!"
"See?" she asked with a superior smirk.
"Nice!" Ogden exclaimed, "You'll have to teach me that."
"Well, it all has to do with detecting the directed effect's magical signature," the woman said, "And then you just-"
"Is this the best time?" Ogden asked.
"Oh, they'll take another minute or so," the woman replied, gesturing casually, "Ron tends to get a bit tired around Newcastle."
Ogden nodded slowly. "How far is this place from London?"
"Not quite 650 kilometers," the woman replied, "Just over 400 miles."
"He can't make that without resting?" Ogden asked, surprised.
"Well, it's about ten jumps for him," the woman said defensively.
"Why doesn't he side-along?" Ogden asked, "Go twice as far with half the difficulty."
"Side-along is harder, since you have drag someone with you," the woman said, incredulous.
Ogden gestured about the square. "Obviously not."
"I've almost made it in one before," the woman replied, a hint of pride in her voice, "So it's not ridiculous to assume that-"
"If it's harder, it is," Ogden cut in, "I helped you out getting here in one."
"Er," said the woman, flustered, "I-"
"Whatever," said Ogden, trying to avoid an argument, "It doesn't matter right now."
The woman huffed.
Ogden looked around the square again, trying to get a sense of its layout. It was bordered by large buildings, including a magnificent cathedral, that rose into the overcast sky. A monument towered over Ogden and the woman, casting them both in shadow. There were several patches of grass around the square, and there were lots of people walking around. Most seemed to be tourists, complete with cameras and loud exclamations, but there were a good amount of people seeming to just be going about their day. Nothing seemed dangerous or off at all.
"Do you remember the pictures?" the woman asked.
"Some," Ogden replied, "But it's low odds that I'd happen to remember the one that was sighted." He shook his head. "I should have asked who it was and grabbed their file."
The woman reached into her cloak and pulled out a folder. "Like this file?"
Ogden smiled ruefully. "Exactly like that." He took it and scanned the information. "So, a sandy blond man with short hair and a scraggly beard." Ogden grimaced. "Oh, this is going to be easy."
"Should we split up?" the woman asked, scanning the immediate crowd.
"Not until Potter and the other one arrive," Ogden replied, looking around for which tall building would be the best to use for scanning the square.
"His name's Ron," the woman said pointedly.
"I know," Ogden said, shrugging. "What's your point?"
"You should use his name," the woman said, a bit petulantly.
"When he's useful, I will," Ogden replied, casually. He looked around a bit more and picked out his building. "What's taking them so long?"
The woman sighed. "Any minute now."
Ogden shook his head and began looking closely the building he'd chosen. It wasn't the tallest, but one part of the roof sort of stuck out from the line of buildings, and Ogden figured he could lay on that and, Disillusioned, get a really good look at the rest of the square.
Thus ready, Ogden asked a question. "I hear Hermione Granger consults with the Auror Department sometimes. Any chance I could meet her?"
The bushy haired woman turned sharply. "Why?"
Ogden shrugged. "I'm a big fan is all. No worries if you can't get her. I'm sure she's busy."
"Er, yes. Busy. I'm sure she is," the woman said, a bit stilted.
Just then, Ogden saw Potter and an extremely out of breath Ron appear in the shadow of a building. "Finally!" Ogden said as he went towards them, the woman following.
Potter and the redheaded idiot walked out of the alley, the latter looking a little worse for wear, and made their way to Ogden and the woman. "Sorry we're late."
Ogden waved it away. "I'm going up to that perch for a look around. She should probably do something similar. Potter, you and him," Ogden gestured at the idiot, "Go around and see if he's in any buildings."
Potter thought for a moment. "All right, then." He nudged the idiot. "Let's go."
The redhead groaned and followed his senior.
The woman looked around. "Where should I be?"
"Preferably somewhere that allows you to see my blind spots?" Ogden suggested with only a little sarcasm.
"Right," the woman said, glaring, "Any useful suggestions?"
Ogden chuckled. "How about there somewhere?" He pointed to the row of buildings to the right of his spot. "I'll let you decide the specifics."
She nodded.
"Er, one more thing," Ogden said, "Do you know the Ventriloquism Charm?"
The woman nodded. "We've lost the incantation, but I've read about it."
"It's Engastrimythus, emphasis on 'gastri,' and 'myth,'" Ogden said, "Wand movement is simply jabbing away from yourself."
The woman nodded. "Why didn't you tell Harry and Ron about this?"
Ogden shrugged. "It's less relevant. And more annoying."
"What?" the woman asked, confused.
"You're more likely to tell me something important," said Ogden, a bit ruefully.
"Oh." The woman frowned. "Was that a compliment?"
Ogden grinned. "Probably not. Bye!"
With a quick spin, and an almost silent pop, Ogden found himself on the roof of his building. With a quick Disillusionment Charm and an overpowered Notice-Me-Not, Ogden lay down on the roof's protuberance. Once situated, he cast an Extrasensory Charm, and the Ventriloquism Charm. Thus prepped, Ogden looked around. The woman seemed to be still finding her place. Harry and the idiot seemed to be trying to be sly as they walked from building to building, casually looking in before moving on to the next one.
Ogden rolled his eyes and focused his mind's eye on the picture from the folder. He couldn't remember any specifically distinguishing features that would pin the guy out of a crowd, but he knew the face well enough to recognize it. Not for the first time, Ogden was extremely grateful for the research done by Timothy Hershen, an American magical known for his work on the Extrasensory Charm. Hershen had discovered that the charm, rather than simply "increase" the user's senses, actually made the senses better at finding something they were searching for, an important distinction.
Thus empowered, Ogden focused down on the crowd. His swept the crowd back and forth, looking for any trace of the Imperio victim. Face after face swam through Ogden's enhanced vision, but their target was nowhere to be seen. Ogden's thoughts began to wander as he scanned the crowd. He wondered what the man was gaining here in Edinburgh. What could the mastermind be after? Could he be trying to steal something from the town hall? Some sort of magical artifact?
"Hey," Ogden whispered to the woman, "Is there something in Edinburgh's Town Hall that our perp could be after?"
There was silence for a while, Ogden presumed while the woman was figuring out the spell, and then a reply. "No idea."
Ogden sighed and went back to searching. Almost more important was what the victim would do when approached. Would he simply Apparate away? Did the mastermind have some sort of blackmail in place to avoid capture? Maybe he chose a public place to dampen the logistics of Anti-Apparition and Anti-Portus wards. That would make a lot of sense, and would have the added effect of alerting the agent if those wards suddenly sprang into being.
Hmm. That was an idea.
"Hey, are you better at Anti-Apparition or Anti-Portus wards?" Ogden whispered to the woman.
"Portus," came the reply.
"Set one up. As wide as you can make it." Ogden took a second to gauge the area of the square. "Doesn't have to last long."
"Why?" asked the woman.
"I want to spook our target," replied Ogden, "If we can make him panic with sudden wards stopping him from getting away, maybe we can apprehend him in all the confusion."
"Got it. Starting the cast now," the woman said.
Ogden grinned, appreciating her calm competence. "Tell me when you're ready to finish casting."
Ogden heard the affirmative and began his own casting. The ward wasn't difficult to cast, especially when Ogden didn't have to worry about connecting it to a ward-stone, and before long, his ward was completed. All that was left was connecting it to something that would be able to hold it just long enough to be noticeable.
"All right," came the whisper from the woman, "I'm ready."
Ogden was impressed. "Me too. Remember, we just need it to last long enough to be noticeable. It doesn't have to be strong."
"Got it," was the reply.
"All right," whispered Ogden, "Three, two, one, go!"
Because Ogden was looking for it, he felt the wards activate, but he doubted anyone else noticed. It was hard to notice wards in open places, mostly because of how most magicals perceived wards working. Generally, it was assumed that wards covered buildings at a time, but Hermione Granger had discovered that they could be cast anywhere as long as the caster saw the area as one unit. That "unit" could be a house, a box, a room, theoretically even a country, or anything at all. Ogden cast the ward, visualizing the whole town square as one unit, and so did the woman. Ogden really should learn her name.
Nothing happened at first, but soon enough, Ogden began to see the tell-tale signs of magicals realizing that wards had gone up. Groups of people began moving about, no doubt trying to see if they could find where the ward ended. Others began shouting to each other, warning that an attack was imminent. Ogden scanned everywhere as hard as he could. He had to find the victim. As the wards stayed up, more and more magicals began to panic and take greater and greater risks to get out of the square. Ogden saw that some of them even pulling out their wands.
But still no victim.
Soon enough, the non-magicals were starting to get agitated by proxy, and were also running around in fear of an attack. The buildings were emptying, and people were swarming into the square. Ogden's Extrasensory Charm was at its limit as he tried to focus on each face as they passed. His brain started to ache from all of the visual stimuli, but Ogden ignored the pain. He glanced around the square, and focused in on the people coming out of the building the woman was on. The pain in Ogden's head was mounting, but still he strained his eyes on the faces pouring into the square.
There! Finally!
"I see him," Ogden whispered to Potter, "He's coming out of the building to the south, hurry!"
Ogden relaxed his vision, sighing at the relief. He'd done his job.
"Did you see him?" the woman asked frantically.
"Yeah, I told Potter," Ogden replied, letting out a loud sigh. He rubbed his temples. "Can you see him?"
"Yeah, but you should watch this too," the woman said.
Ogden rolled his eyes. Of course. He looked back into the crowded square, and soon found Potter pushing his way through the mass of people, the redhead lost somewhere in the crowd. Ogden glanced over to where the victim was, and then glanced back to Potter. They come into contact in something like ten seconds. Ogden rubbed his temples again. He couldn't wait until he could cancel this Extrasensory Charm.
Ah, here it was. Potter was only a second or two away. Ogden focused in on the victim's face. It was slack and emotionless. Clearly Imperiused, sighed Ogden to himself. It was creepy, how easy controlling others was. The victim's eyes widened slightly as he saw Potter, and Ogden saw the ghost of a grin stretch the man's lips.
Suddenly, the man went limp and collapsed to the ground.
Ogden cursed loudly and canceled the Extrasensory and Ventriloquism Charms before Apparating into the doorway of the victim's building. Immediately, he was jostled and shoved by the now-desperate crowd, and Ogden's progress was impeded as he reached the fallen victim, only seconds after Potter reached him. Ogden dropped to a knee and checked the victim's pulse.
Nothing. The man was dead.
Ogden stood up and shouted over the roar of the crowd into Potter's ear, "I'll take him to London to avoid more of a scare! Meet me at the office!"
Potter nodded. "He dead?" shouted the Head Auror.
Ogden nodded. He quickly knelt and transfigured the body into a plastic doll and stowed it in his pocket. That done, Ogden straightened and canceled his Anti-Apparition ward. With a twirl, and that familiar squeezing sensation, Ogden found himself feeling slightly nauseous, standing in the alley next to the Ministry's visitor's booth.
Ogden was just finishing his autopsy in Potter's office when he was joined by the Auror trio. Ogden hadn't been able to find a cause of death which concluded with almost certainty that the man had been killed with the Killing Curse. Almost any other death showed physical signs. Death by Crucio showed simply alarming nerve damage, and everything else presented as obvious asphyxiation, blood loss, blunt trauma, or whatever. Ogden had once had to run an autopsy on someone afflicted by a Dementor's Kiss, which presented as the Killing Curse. Ogden had needed a week-long break from active duty after that experience.
"Welcome back," Ogden greeted with a nod and a polite smile, "Did you manage to stop the riot?"
The red-headed idiot glared back. "Aye, we did. No thanks to you, mate."
"I would have been no help there," said Ogden, shrugging, "As it is, I've just finished the autopsy on our victim."
Potter peered around Ogden to see the body laid out on the desk. "That was fast." Potter moved over and looked down at the body, "What did it?"
"Killing Curse," said Ogden, shaking his head, "Nothing else presented, so that was the only option."
"And we're just supposed to trust you, then?" the red-headed idiot asked, an accusation in his voice.
Ogden looked at the red-head, utterly confused, not bothering to reply.
"Yes, we're supposed to trust him," said the woman, trying and failing to conceal annoyance with her husband, "He's on our side."
Ogden, meanwhile, turned to speak with Potter. "So, the cause of death being the Killing Curse actually makes this a lot easier."
Potter raised an eyebrow.
"You know how the Dark Three work, right?" Ogden asked, "Specifically, do you know about the unique mental component?"
Potter nodded. "You have to mean them."
Ogden considered that. "I suppose that's an adequate umbrella term. Do you know precisely what feelings correspond to which Curse?"
The woman replied, "The Cruciatus Curse requires that you want the victim to feel pain."
Ogden nodded. "That's right. Imperius requires that you feel absolutely justified in taking over a person's whole identity."
Potter frowned, "That's-" he paused, "That's true, isn't it?"
Ogden looked at the older man sympathetically. "You've used the Imperius before?"
Potter was immediately guarded. "That is to say-"
Ogden patted him on the shoulder. "They're not inherently illegal in America. I've used all three, in their proper place."
Potter looked at him with wide eyes. "Just using one has me up some nights, even more so after what you've told me. H-how..." he trailed off.
Ogden remembered what his mentor had told him after Ogden's first Killing Curse. "We live on the boundary of the shadow and the light. Touched by both, consumed by neither. It is our curse, and it is our strength. To use Darkness without being consumed by it, and to rely on Light without being blinded by it. If you can be strong enough to live in that eternal twilight, you'll surely protect that which you hold dear." Ogden finished his speech by squeezing Potter's shoulder. "If you need to talk to someone who has been there, I'm here any time."
Potter looked at the rude American and smiled at him for the first time. "Thanks."
After another moment, Ogden pulled back and continued, "Now, the Killing Curse requires that you feel that the recipient deserves death, that for them to continue living would be something tantamount to a crime against nature." He turned to the idiot and the woman, gesturing with a hand. "That's why it's almost always impossible to commit suicide with the Killing Curse. No matter how much they want to die, people also want to live even if it's just a little."
"Does that mean he had an accomplice there that we didn't see?" asked Potter, "To make sure he wasn't captured?"
Ogden shook his head. "I checked his wand. The last spell used was the Killing Curse. This was a suicide."
"But that doesn't make sense," said the woman, "He can't have been under the Imperius at that range if the caster still wanted to have any semblance of control over his over victims."
Ogden shrugged. "I don't see any other way for him to commit suicide in this way unless he was controlled. I think," he said pensively, "We need to accept that there's a lot more to the Imperius Curse than we thought initially. Or that our perp is some kind of prodigy." Ogden shuddered.
"Well, we can get the next one," the red-headed idiot said, obviously trying to cheer up the mood, "So it'll be fine."
Ogden sent a withering stare at the idiot. "The same thing will happen." He turned to Potter. "Was anything stolen from Edinburgh?"
Potter shook his head. "We talked to the local ministry, and they didn't notice anything."
Ogden frowned. "Then it was just a decoy."
At that moment, a messenger came running in to Potter's office. "I'm sorry, Mr Potter, but there's news!"
Potter glanced up. "What is it, Creevey?"
"They've taken Wales, sir!" exclaimed the small man, "Wales is under enemy control!"
Ogden snapped his fingers. "Of course! He's not stealing something. He's creating an army!"
"So what do we know?" Ogden asked, a few hours later, after putting all of the information together, and getting everyone to calm down.
"Our perp has been using the Imperius to recruit wizards into an army of sorts," said the redhead.
"He's made his first move, using a decoy to lure us out of England. He took Wales," said the woman.
"And now he's consolidating himself," finished Potter, with a forlorn sigh.
"Right." Ogden sighed as well. "His hostile takeover of Wales confirms that he probably intends to use force to take the UK for himself."
"Why start with Wales?" asked the small messenger, "Shouldn't he start with a more, er, useful place?"
"A test?" suggested the woman, "He wanted to make sure his forces would work as he intends?"
Ogden nodded. "I agree. It's almost what I would do." He scratched his chin. "It was a mistake to do something so visible, though."
"Right!" said Potter, "Now we can see him coming!"
"To an extent," Ogden allowed, "And we know his MO." He looked around at his group. "How good are all of you at fighting?"
"My mate here is the best!" exclaimed the red-head, slapping Potter on the back, "He took down ol' Voldemort one on one!"
Ogden nodded. "Can I spar with you?"
Potter tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"Practice fight?" Ogden said, "We test each others' mettle and come out the other end with a new-found respect?"
"Right!" Potter said, "Come this way."
Ogden followed the Head Auror to the lift, and down to an underground floor. They turned this way and that, Ogden making sure to remember how to get back to the lift, and even descended more stairs. The ministry was sort of ominous down here, black marble still being the choice brick color, and Ogden began feeling a little nervous. The various department names didn't help matters.
Finally, Potter stopped in front of a rustic wooden door that was oddly out of place in such a uniform building. "This is where people would duel for honor, back when that was more in vogue," Potter said, pushing the door open.
Inside was a large ring, covered in a light layer of dust, with high bleachers surrounding it. Ogden cast a quick Diagnostics Charm and found that the bleachers were protected by a ward he'd never come into contact with. Ogden quickly memorized the structure to bring up back home. The bleachers were all in black marble, and Ogden couldn't see the ceiling, though whether that was because it was too high or too dark, Ogden couldn't tell.
Potter crossed to the other side of the ring. "To disarm?"
Ogden shrugged. "Sure." He turned to the others. "Well, have a seat." He gestured to the bleachers.
"Harry's gonna trash you, mate," jeered the idiot as he and the others climbed up to the seats.
Ogden took a deep breath and pulled out his Charm wand as well as his standard wand. It was slightly irksome that Ogden didn't know Potter's fighting style, and therefore would have to rely on a standard wand, rather than a specialized one. Thinking back, Ogden couldn't recall any specialty Potter was supposed to have, according to the rumors, so a standard flash-bang approach would probably be fine.
The two combatants stood opposite each other for a few seconds, tensed and ready to go, before the messenger boy called out, "Duel!"
Immediately, Ogden silently cast an overpowered Cannon Blast from his standard wand, a Disillusionment Charm from is charm wand, and Disapparated behind Harry. Harry was halfway through saying his spell when the sound waves made him clap his hands to his ears. Ogden then silently cast a Disarming Charm while pocketing his standard wand, and casually caught Harry's disarmed wand. Victory in hand, Ogden canceled his Disillusionment with his Charm wand and pocketed it.
"I hereby return Mr Harry Potter's wand to his mastery and control," Ogden said, handing the holly wand back to its master.
Potter turned around, and took his wand, shocked. "How did you do all that?"
Ogden frowned. "What do you mean? That was a standard flash-bang." When Potter still looked confused, Ogden continued. "Cannon Blast to disorient and hide Apparition pop, Disillusionment to hide my body, and Disarming to win the match."
Potter shook his head. "No, how did you do that so fast?"
"Mind partition," said Ogden, nodding in comprehension, "Basically allows me to use half my magic on two spells at the same time."
Potter's jaw dropped. "Bullshit."
Ogden grinned. He loved showing off. "Not at all, my friend." He drew his standard wand again. "Watch this." He silently cast green sparks with his standard, and red sparks with his Charms.
"H-how?" Potter asked.
"It's an Occlumency skill," Ogden replied, still grinning proudly, "I invented it."
By this time, the others had come down from the bleachers. The red-head was, unsurprisingly, complaining. Ogden tuned him out.
"But isn't only using half your magic, er, not as powerful?" asked the woman, as they descended.
Ogden looked at her, confused. "How did you hear that?"
"Sonorus Ward," she said simply.
Ogden nodded. So that's what he read. What a useless ward. "It all depends on the spell," he said, answering her question, "For example, the Disarming Charm has a very small power requirement, and then either works or doesn't work. There's no point to over-powering or under-powering it."
The woman frowned. "But what about an Unforgivable?"
"One of the Dark Three?" asked Ogden. At her nod, he continued, "I can just cast it from both partitions. It's not a full one hundred percent spell, some magic slips through the cracks, but the difference between a ninety-five percent Imperio and a hundred percent Imperio is sort of negligible."
Potter grinned like a child. "Can you teach me to do that?"
Ogden chuckled. "How's your Occlumency?"
"Er," Potter faltered, "Not the best."
"Then I probably can't teach you," said Ogden, with a sort of what-can-you-do shrug.
"Er, my Occlumency is pretty good," said the woman.
Ogden smirked. "We'll see." He turned back to Potter. "So, are you the best duelist in England?"
Potter shrugged. "I don't really do the Dueling Circuit."
Ogden nodded. "Gotcha." He looked around the dueling ring. "Is there a faster way back to the Auror Department?"
Potter nodded. "I just wanted to show you our Ministry on the way down here." He took out a small coin with an M cut into the face. "Here. It'll activate in a second or two."
Ogden took the small Portkey, and suddenly was jerked through time and space, until he landed back in the Auror Department. The others popped back just after.
"So," Ogden said, as if nothing had happened, "We need to decide what sort of strategy we'll use to get out perp."
"Let's just pop over to Wales and find him," said the red-head, punching a fist into his other hand.
Ogden considered the idea. "Hermione Granger gave her Country-wide Portkey Ward to the public, right?"
"Er," the woman stammered, "Yeah."
Ogden cursed. "Then he'll probably have that up. And we should assume that he applied her theory to Apparition wards, too, so-"
"It doesn't work like that," said the woman, "Apparition wards are much more taxing on the ward-stone, so it's much less stable."
Ogden raised an eyebrow. "As long as you maintenance the ward-stone regularly, it's fine."
"That would require a simply absurd amount of magic," the woman countered, "So much so as to be utterly unrealistic."
"Need I remind you this guy has at least forty people under a simultaneous Imperius?" asked Ogden, doing his best to keep condescension out of his voice, "He has an absurd amount of magic."
"He'd lose power over his victims if he maintained it himself," said the woman.
Ogden sighed. "Then he has two or three of his victims maintenance the stone. Besides, if you do it right, you don't have to maintain it every day."
"For that sort of ward, you would!" the woman exclaimed.
"Do you not know about magical feedback batteries?" asked Ogden incredulously.
"Er," that brought the woman up short.
Ogden rolled his eyes. "Basically, you set up a store of raw magic, funnel it into the ward-stone, then set up another channel that collects the run-off and uses it to refill the store."
The woman frowned, working out the Arithmancy in her head. "That's...that's brilliant." She looked up at Ogden in awe. "Did you think of that?"
Ogden shook his head. "My mentor did."
"Anyway," broke in Potter, "So we can't magically enter Wales."
"Well, presumably we can't," said Ogden, "He may not know about batteries, but we have to assume he does."
Potter nodded. "So what's the plan?"
"We need to secure our borders, and warn the Scottish sub-ministry, and the Irish Ministry," said the woman, "I'll set up the Country-wide Apparition Ward, so we can be that much more prepared."
"I'd feel a lot better if you got Hermione Granger to do that," said Ogden, "No offense, but I don't know how good you are at wards, and since it's her theory anyway…you understand."
After a second of the idiot and Potter looking at the woman, she said, "All right."
Ogden nodded. "Now, Potter, you should keep taking sightings of the victims."
"Won't they just be decoys?" asked the idiot, "What's the point?"
"Think about it," Ogden said, again doing his best, "Where did we sight the first victim?"
"Edinburgh," said the redhead slowly.
"And where did our perp strike?" asked Ogden slowly.
"Wales," growled the idiot, "I'm not an idiot."
"How far is Wales from Edinburgh?" asked Ogden.
"Bloody far," said the red-head, comprehension dawning in his eyes after a second. "Ah."
"Exactly," said Ogden, turning back to Potter. "Doubtless he heard about your volunteer sighting program and used it against us."
Potter nodded, looking a little sheepish, "Sorry. People know me."
Ogden waved it away. "I tunneled on this being a heist. Had I known this was an invasion, I wouldn't have used a sighting initiative."
"Thanks," Potter said.
"What will you do?" asked the idiot, another accusation in his tone.
"I'm going to get captured," smiled Ogden.
Ogden trudged across the M4 highway, crossing from England to Wales on foot. He was dressed like a vagrant, which included liberally smearing mud all over his clothes, and had lengthened his hair and beard. He smelled quite ripe, and had rips and patches all over his dirtied clothes. Under everything, Ogden was of course wearing his Wumpus hide armor, but he looked quite the drifter on the surface.
The bridge was long, but Ogden didn't speed up his beggar's pace in case someone was watching. Cars zoomed past, mussing up Ogden's hair even more. The sky was overcast, as was apparently normal in the UK, and there was a brisk breeze alongside the cars' tailwind. The Bristol Channel flowed choppily beneath the bridge, whipped up a bit by the breeze. Ogden became suddenly aware that he needed a contingency for getting tossed in the channel once under influence of the Anti-Travel wards. Bubble-head into Temperature Stasis with the Charm wand, and perhaps some sort of partial transfiguration with the standard? Seems right.
At the middle of the bridge, Ogden began searching for the ward boundary. Fortunately, no non-magical would look twice at a vagrant tapping on various pilings with a stick and muttering to himself. The only question was how to find the boundary. Ogden closed his eyes and felt for the presence of the ward with his mind. This had a very small chance of working, as wards were virtually undetectable unless someone was looking for them as they were being put up, and sure enough, Ogden found nothing. Not to mention, unless he was looking at the ward-stone, a Diagnostic Charm wouldn't find anything.
After several minutes of casting and looking and finding nothing, Ogden shrugged and figured he should just cross the bridge. The perp was obviously better than Ogden gave him credit for. And, to be honest, the border of a ward was probably the worst place to actually place the ward-stone. Ogden quickly cast the illusion of himself and keyed to his movement, Disillusioning himself in the process. Only a second and half, the Portkey lag was all but gone.
Ogden finished his walk, surreptitiously looking around for anyone on guard at the border. He silently cast an Extrasensory to aid him in his search, despite the charm making him far worse at seeing normal things. He almost immediately tripped on a loose stone and cursed softly. Once off the bridge, Ogden suddenly felt something being different. An eerie, cool sensation ran over his neck and back, raising the hairs there. Ogden felt his illusion disappear, and his Disillusionment was canceled. Ogden reached into his pocket to grab his wand, but suddenly two men with slack, Imperiused faces appeared in front of him.
Ogden looked from one to the other, trying to buy time as he grabbed his wand. "What do you want?"
"The master-" began the one on the left.
"Will see you-" said the one on the right.
"Now," both finished.
Ogden's eyes bugged and he whipped his wand up, but not before both men leveled their wands at him. "Imperio."
The Dark Lord Brenin o Rheoli sat upon his throne, his mind expanded into his fifty-two minions, most of whom were spread along the borders of his new domain. Almost lazily, Brenin shifted from mind to mind, surveying patch after patch of beautiful Welsh countryside. Finally, his homeland had been returned. Brenin had been planning his conquest of Wales for years, and had finally discovered the trick to complete mental control over a person, and then multiple people.
Brenin had perfect this power in the far reaches of Northern Scotland, and had then moved southward. Muggles had been his initial targets, as there were few consequences to a Muggle's mind snapping, but before long, Brenin had begun acquiring wizards to join his army. Due to Brenin's genius, he'd been able to avoid suspicion for a whole week of abductions. That he was able to obtain seventeen minions before encountering opposition had wildly exceeded Brenin's expectations. Britain would be easy to take.
Then, the Potter fool had begun that volunteer sighting program, with heavy implications that the Auror Head himself would respond to them. This worked for Brenin perfectly. He put a minion in Edinburgh on the day he planned to take the Welsh sub-ministry, and a put in the sighting call himself through a different minion.
The distraction had worked even better than Brenin had anticipated, with some fool inciting a riot in the middle of the operation. The noise and chaos had attracted Brenin's attention, and he'd directed the minion into the square, to see if Potter was there. Sure enough, Potter was easily spotted and Brenin had easily killed the minion, ensuring at least another few hours of safety in taking the Welsh sub-ministry.
That had been laughably easy, as the Welsh security volunteers were no match for Brenin's perfectly in-sync army. The front lines of minions had swept the volunteers aside, as the back lines were kept vigilant for magical communication, and shot them down. No owl, no Patronus, no magicked letter made it away from the battlefield. Granted, once the British Ministry tried to contact the Welsh, the jig as such would be up, but that took an hour or two too long.
Brenin had easily been able to consolidate his country after that, absorbing the Welsh wizards into his arms, and erecting Anti-Travel wards based on Hermione Granger's ward theory. Really, a silly move to publish something that useful. Who knew what sort of wrong hands that information would fall into.
Brenin was pulled out of his thoughts when his Magical Detection ward went off. He immediately shifted into the closest two minions and popped them over to the place. It was a bridge over the Bristol Channel, and some vagrant was poking around the edge of Brenin's Anti-Travel wards. No, not some vagrant. No simple vagrant would use the spells this individual was using. Brenin suddenly felt a stab of fear, but quenched it just as quickly. This vagrant would be an invaluable addition to Brenin's army.
Brenin slipped into a nearby minion and popped him over to the two border minions. He handed off a pre-charged ward-stone and popped off back to Brenin's side. Brenin dropped the stone on the ground and cast a Malintentus, in conjunction with an Infaustus, and finally a Tardus to top it all off. The first minion was exhausted after the first two, so the second had to finish it off. Brenin really needed higher quality minions.
After a quick flitting around to his other minions, to make sure there wasn't a pincer movement, Brenin jumped back into his two border minions, just in time to see the vagrant reach the very outside boundary of his new ward-stone. Brenin grinned and activated the stone. The vagrant was visibly affected by the sudden magical effects, his movement suddenly stopped and his tension was visible.
Reveling in victory, Brenin popped his two minions over to the vagrant. Brenin loved seeing the fear in people's eyes as they realized their doom was inevitable.
"What do you want?" asked the vagrant, obviously reaching for his wand.
Deciding to have some fun, Brenin spoke through first one minion, then the other, then both. "The master will see you now."
The Tardus ward, triggering off of the Malintentus, activated as the vagrant tried to pull his wand up, but Brenin was faster with his Imperius. The vagrant's eyes went flat, and his expression became slack. As his two minions grabbed the vagrant and popped him back to Brenin's throne room, Brenin lamented that the Legilimency part had to be done in person. Not for the first time, Brenin wished that he could crush his Imperiused victims' will to be independent from afar, but he had not yet mastered that art. Maybe he would in the future.
Soon enough, the vagrant walked into Brenin's throne room. Brenin quickly bounced around to his other minions again, to be sure there were no other threats to his borders, before commanding his new minion to come forward. The vagrant approached Brenin's throne and knelt before looking up at his new master.
Brenin sneered at the man before diving into his mind.
"Welcome master," thought the vagrant, as Brenin arrived in his mindscape, "Please, make yourself at home."
Brenin scowled at how small the mind was. Perhaps there was a downside to only taking vagrants and bums as minions. "Where is your independent will, slave?"
"Right here, master," thought the vagrant, pulling forth a small gold box.
Brenin took it and thought, "How might I destroy it?"
"Oh, I'll do that," thought the vagrant, "If it please you."
Brenin nodded. "Do that, slave."
The vagrant practically fell over himself in his attempt to rip the will-box apart. "There! Anything else?"
"Your personal identity?" thought Brenin.
A picture of a man in his late twenties, looking quite capable of handling himself, was handed to Brenin. "This is you?"
"Yes, yes, it is." The slave was permanently half-bowed in his master's presence. "Shall I destroy that, too?"
"Yes," thought Brenin, "Please do."
Soon enough, the picture was annihilated down to the frame itself, and the vagrant's thoughts suddenly lacked all tone and personality. "I live to serve, my master."
"You do indeed," thought Brenin, pulling himself out of the claustrophobic size of the minion's mind.
Brenin rested his head on a hand as he looked down at his newest minion. He'd probably use this one as cannon fodder. That mind was too cramped to be in for any length of time, and it was too small to hold any amount of useful magic.
Suddenly, the vagrant stood and looked with clear, cogent eyes at Brenin. "Dark Lord," he said, giving a mocking bow.
Brenin started, his brow tightening into a sudden frown. "What-" His five guard-minions all drew their wands, but the vagrant's wand was already pointed at Brenin.
"No Tardus now, huh Brenin?" smirked the vagrant, "Call them off or they all die."
Brenin sputtered. "Don't you, er, mean I'll die?"
The vagrant smirked. "Now what would that do? You'll just jump your consciousness into another of your minions, and I'll have to follow you again."
"Maybe I'll just do that anyway!" Brenin bluffed.
"I don't think you will," tut-tutted the vagrant, "After all, if your body is alive, your mind will still feel pain, right?"
Brenin blanched. Who was this wizard?
"I'd say we're at an impasse," sighed the vagrant, "You can't compete with me, physically, and I'm no match for your brains."
"I am that smart," agreed Brenin, "But I disagree that I can't compete with you physically."
The vagrant raised a mocking eyebrow. "Have you heard of Eric Ogden?"
Brenin frowned at the non-sequitor. "No."
The vagrant smirked. "You didn't search any of my memories, by any chance, did you?"
Brenin shook his head.
"Right," said the vagrant, "Just know that I am the champion duelist in the American circuit."
Brenin shrugged. "Duelists are specialists and one-on-one, nothing more."
The vagrant gave his first genuine smile. "I'm so glad you think so."
Brenin gave the most tentative read he could, and the line seemed genuine. But even the most battle-hardened duelist could never stand up to fifty-two simultaneous Imperius curses. Brenin stretched his mind the furthest it could go and popped all of his minions into the room, surrounding the vagrant, whose eyes were glued to Brenin.
"Don't do it," the vagrant warned, backing up and taking his other hand out of his pocket. "I'll kill them."
Brenin glared at the vagrant. "I think you're bluffing."
The vagrant let drop a small stone, and Brenin ordered the attack. Suddenly, a searing heat exploded throughout the room for just a second, leaving as quickly as it appeared. The vagrant stood, amidst the scorched robes and bodies of all of Brenin's minions, hooded and completely umharmed.
"Imperio!" screamed Brenin, fueling his spell with all of the rage he felt at all of his minions dying.
The vagrant's face screwed itself into a fierce scowl as his mind battled Brenin's most powerful curse. The veins began popping out of his dirty face, the muscles throughout his face tightened, and hatred flared in his eyes. Brenin continued the pressure of magic into the vagrant's mind, beyond caring if he snapped the bastard's mind, as long as Brenin won the battle.
The vagrant winced, and slid a step back as Brenin's pressure increased. Brenin was slowly winning. He pushed forward, glorying in his victory over this adversary who had thrown such a wrench in his plans. The cursed vagrant had his hands clenched, and the pressure rendered his fingers white. He was obviously resisting with everything he had, and still Brenin was winning.
The Dark Lord threw everything he had into the final push, drawing power from all of the pre-charged ward-stones in the room in his effort to batter down the vagrant's defenses. The vagrant snarled as the pressure increased again, his barely-visible neck muscles beginning to strain. The vagrant's frown deepened and his growls became louder and louder, and Brenin pressed harder and ever harder into the fool's mind.
What Brenin did not see was the vagrant's wand slowly but surely rising to aim at the self-proclaimed Dark Lord. Brenin neither heard nor saw coming the spell that knocked him out. As he fell into unconsciousness, Brenin had one last thought. Who the bloody hell was that vagrant?
"And then I brought him here," said Ogden casually, as he magically removed the rest of the vagrancy costume.
Potter and his two associates stared slack-jawed at Ogden's story. It was one of his better ones, after all.
"You killed all of his minions?" the woman asked breathlessly, "All of them?"
Ogden nodded. "They were gone. All of the parts of them that were uniquely them had been destroyed by Mister Dark Lord here."
"I don't understand what you did," said Potter, "What was that flash of fire?"
"An incredibly unstable Ignis ward," said Ogden, to a gasp from the woman, "With nothing stabilizing it, the ward activates then immediately dissipates."
"How did you break out of his mind break thingy?" asked the idiot, "How do we know you're really you?"
"I told you earlier," explained Ogden, successfully keeping condescension from his voice this time, "My mind is partitioned. Once he broke the one half, my other half was able to take over completely." He sighed. "It's why I had to nuke the minions. Two simultaneous spells would have allowed me to take them in for study."
"You mean take them in to restore them, right?" asked the woman, a dangerous tone to her voice.
Ogden looked at her, growing completely serious. "They were gone. There was nothing I could do. The most we could do if I took them is study how Brenin was able to take them over so completely." When the woman began to respond, Ogden continued, "Fortunately, he broke one of my partitions so I know exactly how he did it."
"We could have saved them," the woman said, almost desperately, "No one is beyond saving!"
Ogden stepped forward and took her shoulders. "Look at me."
She looked up, shaken.
"There was nothing of them left," Ogden said, forcing the truth of his words into her with his will, "There was no one, nothing, to save."
The woman's lip began to tremble, and Ogden let go of her. "Well, Auror Potter," he said, turning to the Head, "It's been good."
Potter nodded, looking a little sad. "It has, Sheriff Ogden." Potter chuckled dryly. "Did you ever figure it out, whether I'm an idiot or not?"
Ogden smirked. "It's up to fifty/fifty, Potter."
Potter grinned. "I'll take it."
Ogden faced the other two. "Can you tell Hermione Granger I said 'hello'?"
After a second or two, the idiot began laughing. "Mate, you just did!"
Ogden frowned. "What?"
The woman, a smile fighting back the sadness, spoke up with a trembling voice, "I'm Hermione Granger."
Ogden's eyes bugged. "No. You can't be!"
The woman frowned. "Why not?"
"You're, well," Ogden sputtered, "You're not as, erm-"
"Smart?" she asked sharply.
"Yeah," finished Ogden lamely.
"My wife is smarter than anyone else!" bristled the idiot, swelling up a bit, "You bloody well back off!"
Ogden chuckled. "Relax, relax." He turned to Granger. "Mrs Granger, Hermione, I'd like to extend an invitation to you to come to America with me. A researcher of your caliber should have the resources only available in the most specialized magical country in the world." He finished his statement with a bow.
Granger faltered. "Er, well, that's certainly a, oh my, generous offer."
"You'd have all of the resources, all of the assistants, you'd ever need," Ogden continued, straightening, "And you'll probably draw some disciples as well." He winked. "You're a big deal back home."
Granger flushed, obviously torn. "Well, I'd have to think about it." She glanced over at the idiot. "Talk about it with my husband."
The idiot thought for a second. "You should go! Er, that is, if you want to." At her surprised look, the idiot continued. "See, you're bloody brilliant, and I support you in your career."
Granger beamed. "Thanks, Ron." She pulled him into an embrace before looking over at Ogden. "I'll need a few days to pack!"
Ogden nodded. "Take as much time as you want." He turned to the idiot and clapped him on the shoulder. "Thank you, Ronald," Ogden said warmly.
Granger beamed.
"It's 'Ron,' mate," the idiot corrected, looking confused at Ogden's words of praise.
Ogden nodded and removed his hand. The idiot hadn't heard the conversation that would make that meaningful. "Well, I'm off. I'll be back to pick you up, Granger."
Granger and the idiot waved goodbye and Ogden turned to walk over to the Portkey that would take him back to America. After a moment, Ogden glanced over his shoulder and saw that Potter was walking him to the Portkey. Ogden smiled to himself. It was a nice gesture.
"Before you go," Potter began, when they'd reached the Portkey, "Will you be all right?"
Ogden turned to face the British Auror. "I'll just have one partition until I can figure out how to reconnect the two of them." He shrugged. "It'll be a while until I'm back up to full power."
Potter gripped Ogden's shoulder. "I'll never forget the sacrifice you made for Britain."
Ogden smiled and returned the grip. "We got the bad guy. That's what's important."
"If there's anything I can do," Potter said meaningfully.
"I'll be sure to get Granger to help me," smirked Ogden.
Potter grinned. "That's probably a better idea."
As Ogden picked up the Portkey, he turned back to Potter and said, "If you need me again, just call!"
Potter shook his head. "Let's hope that doesn't happen!"