A Reveal in Three Parts

Chapter One: Winnie

Author note: This story is the eighteenth in the Magical Flashpoint series. It follows "Saving Simmons".

Although all original characters belong to me, I do not own Flashpoint, Harry Potter, Narnia, or Merlin.


Winnie looked up from her desk as Sergeant Parker and his nephew came in. Her boss had called hours earlier to update her on the case: their successful rescue of the girls and the arrest of Auror Anderson, but she'd hung around, hoping to catch Parker and get at least a few of her questions answered.

"Good evening, Winnie," Sarge greeted her, giving her his trademark smile. "Do you have some time or do you need to get home?"

"I have time, sir," Winnie replied, smiling back at the pair and hoping that Lance's presence wouldn't prevent Sarge from explaining.

"Okay," her boss acknowledged, "Let's go in the briefing room, Winnie. The paperwork is going to have to wait a few days for things to settle down, but we can answer a few questions tonight."

Once in the briefing room, Sarge tapped the door controls, lowering the door to the briefing room. Winnie sat at the table, watching her boss and his nephew curiously. Lance's eyes danced with a hidden amusement and he played with something on his forearm while he waited for his uncle.

"Okay, Winnie, your choice: you can ask questions now or I can give you the overview and then you can ask," Sarge announced, sitting down at the table with an almost silent sigh of relief at being off his feet.

It was an easy choice, so Winnie tilted her head and said, "Might as well start from the beginning, sir."

Another one of her boss's smiles flashed across the distance. "All right. It started two years ago when mio nipotes moved here from England."

Winnie's eyes widened as she drew the logical conclusion. Looking over at Lance, she asked, "You have magic?"

"Yeah," Lance confirmed, with a grin. "So does 'Lanna…we were born in the magical world and we'd never been in the tech world before."

"Tech? Is that what you call our world?" Winnie inquired.

Both of them hesitated, Lance looking to his uncle for permission; Sarge sighed and took over. "Spike's the one who came up with 'tech', Winnie…most of the magical world calls our world the 'Muggle' world and any magicals born on 'our' side of the fence are called 'Muggleborns'. The Auror who brought the kids to Toronto told me that we had to keep magic a secret; that didn't last twelve hours." Winnie giggled at Sarge's proud, exasperated tone of voice. "By the end of the kids' first day with me, everyone except Rollie knew about magic; Sam hadn't joined the team yet."

"So, did Sam know about magic before he joined the team?" Winnie asked.

Lance snickered and Sarge tossed him a mild glare. "As it turned out, he did, but I wasn't informed. Our Auror liaison not only didn't tell me, he ran me around in circles for weeks when I asked for permission to tell Sam and never did tell me Sam knew about magic; Sam finally told us he knew about the magical world after a hot call during which I called Scorpio on a wizard subject suspected of killing six women on our side of the fence."

Winnie's brows furrowed in confusion. "If Sam knew about magic, does that mean he's magical?"

Lance shook his head and answered before Sarge could. "Sam's father was born to a magical family, but he didn't have enough magic to be a wizard, so he had to leave the magical world. Both here in Toronto and back in England, people born to magical parents without enough magic to use are called Squibs, so, basically, Sam's Squib-born and he's known about magic his whole life."

"Not exactly the way I would have put it," Sarge remarked, "But close enough." Lance, far from being embarrassed by his uncle's mild rebuke, just smirked. "Between the hot call and a few…subsequent events, we earned Auror status and the Auror Division started making improvements to our shields and body armor."

As he spoke, he pulled out a small leather badge wallet and slid it over to Winnie. She opened up the wallet, pulling back a bit in surprise at the sight of her boss's image actually moving on the ID. Opposite the ID, the badge was quietly elegant and, aside from the wand, not even openly magical. After examining the badge, she offered it back to her boss. "So, how often have your calls actually been on the magic side of the fence, sir?"

"For the past three, four weeks, I'd say about half of our calls have been magic-side," Sarge replied, thoughtful. "Before that, they were much rarer; I hope after tonight, they'll go back to being more rare…the Auror Division needs to stop their current trend of getting too dependent on us." He leaned forward, still thoughtful. "As far as your role goes, I'm planning on getting you onboard as a dispatcher, just like you are tech-side." Winnie nodded agreement. "The paperwork is going to have to wait until Madame Locksley briefs Commander Holleran; he's been getting annoyed with me for telling him so many of our calls are 'classified'." Winnie grimaced, Holleran hadn't been the only one getting annoyed by that. "We'll probably have to play things by ear at first, but I think we'll get most everything hammered out in fairly short order."

"Yes, sir," Winnie agreed, not quite sure what else she could say. Her eyes darted between her boss and Lance, then she requested, tentatively, "Can you…show me?"

Lance's grin lit up the room and he gave his uncle a pleading look. Sergeant Parker studied his nephew, then he sighed and gave his nephew a 'go ahead' gesture. With a soft, "Yes!" Lance pushed aside part of the table, giving himself more room. He backed up, then blurred, his form shifting into a large part lion, part eagle animal. The animal churr-ed, wings sweeping out before folding back on his back. Intelligent, sapphire-blue eagle eyes regarded her and a lion's tail, adorned with tail feathers, arched over his back.

Winnie gaped at the animal, shocked by the transformation and irrefutable proof that magic was real. Sarge chuckled a little at the look on her face and stood up, approaching the beautiful predator with no fear whatsoever. She trailed after him, getting up close to the animal, marveling at the smooth shift between feathers and fur, the detail on the tail feathers, and the sleek muscles visible on the animal's legs and shoulders.

"What is he?" Winnie asked, running a hand over one wing.

Sarge's grin could only be called impish. "He's a gryphon Animagus, Winnie. An Animagus is a magical capable of transforming into an animal." Sarge gave the gryphon a warning look. "Of course, he's not going to do what Alanna did and fly right into the middle of a hot call with a sniper." The gryphon ducked his head, giving them an innocent look from behind one wing. "Don't give me that, young man," Sarge scolded.

Winnie couldn't help it; at the wounded expression the gryphon gave his uncle, she doubled over, roaring with laughter.