AN – Please note this is going to be VERY AU, and most changes I make are intentional. I've been pretty liberal in some of my changes. If you see any inconsistencies within my story, feel free to mention it. Reviews are welcome, constructive criticism is welcome but please be civil. Harry Potter stuff is obviously not mine, the original characters are.


Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) – An initiative by the U.S. Military to unify command of its special operations units. While each special operations unit is still a part of its branch, they all report to JSOC.

MACUSA – Magical Congress of the United States of America – Located in the Washburn building of New York City, MACUSA is the governing body of the magical community in the United States. The magical community in America is significantly weaker than its muggle counterpart. Having been hunted to near extinction during the witch trials, it has not yet fully recovered. MACUSA has difficulty containing threats to the secrecy statute along with hostile creatures, being understaffed as it is. They are convinced to provide support to the development of Task Force Ansible.

Magic Genetic Enhancement Program – Designed to manipulate the genes of muggles, allowing to them to see and feel magic. While it does not make someone a wizard, they can see dementors and other magical creatures normally hidden to muggles. Has a significantly higher success rate the younger the subject.

Magic Infused Munitions and Equipment (MIME) Program – One of the JSOC programs assisted by MACUSA, the primary purpose is to harden muggle equipment to magical effects. Creates Night Vision Goggles, SatNav, Drones, Helicopters, etc. hardened against magical warding. Also enchants ammunition and grenades to be enhanced with magic. Primary ammunition used by TFA is rubber or plastic rounds enchanted with Stupefy or Petrificus Totalus. Heavy rounds are enchanted with Bombarda, etc. Using stunning rounds allows for arresting targets, or enforcing rules on armed populations without lethal force. Magazines are color coded by the spell used in its enchantment.

Orbital Cargo Delivery Satellite (OCDS) – An expensive program by the US military to limit the gear special operators need to carry into the field. It is a space based satellite storing heavy weapons, ammunition and other heavy gear, along with emergency supplies and small vehicles. Operators of TFA carry a forearm Personal Data Assistant (PDA) with them into combat that is linked with the OCDS, and can call in gear. The gear is automatically loaded to a drop pod and deployed to the operator's location. The operator can use GPS or can manually take control of the pod at a certain distance to point it where they need it. Drop pod success rate is currently 70% and only Tier 1 units have access.

Task Force Ansible – Led by a former Delta Operator, Colonel Marshall Sumner, Task Force Ansible is a project created by JSOC to provide the non-magic military an effective means to respond to magical threats. Through assistance from the MACUSA, several short notice/high priority projects culminate into a regiment strength force capable of seeing and fighting magic and magical creatures. Task Force is 1400 soldiers strong, with the entire front line force staffed by youths aged 15-17 years old from Spartan Program. Most officers and support personnel have received gene therapy to varying rates of success, but are adults.

Spartan Program – U.S. Military program taking orphaned children, especially those orphaned by terrorism, and training them as special operations soldiers. Spartans were not necessarily U.S. citizens when recruited. Spartan program is eventually enveloped into Task Force Ansible, as the youths are significantly more susceptible to the genetic enhancements to needed to see or interact with magic, along with their success as soldiers. Most are at an Army Ranger equivalent and are called Spartans, a small cadre are trained by Tier 1 units and are more along the lines of Delta Operators. They're referred to as Operators.


Edgar Weatherford, Assistant to the Director of the National Air Traffic Services, tried to take another sip of his tea. Of course, it was empty. Sighing he heaved his plump frame and waddled to the break room, leaving behind his desk with its significant stacks of files. His body protested the movement, joints yearning for the sedentary style he was so used to at home. Sitting at the uncomfortable desk all day was not doing him any favors, and these last few days he was doing a lot of sitting at his desk.

He slowly worked his way back to the desk, dreading the work ahead. The new Prime Minister came into office fulfilling his promise to decommission several military bases around the UK. This meant that the airspace needed to be reclassified as unrestricted. Unfortunately, they were simultaneously transferring from paper to digital tracking systems and so the workload was significant.

Prior to his appointment as Assistant Director, Edgar had spent almost ten years on data entry and programming. Not because the job held any interest for him whatsoever, but because it put him in an office where he could bump elbows with the important people.

He'd done his job well enough. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. He'd made friends with the right people however, which finally led to his promotion. It'd been years since he'd done data entry of any form and he'd relished forgetting the information, making room for trivial information about the soap operas he didn't admit to watching at night.

He still recalled the conversation with the Director when the upcoming workloads were being assigned. The Director padded his ego, he was adept at that. He too was man who had made friends with the right people. Still, the Director insisted that Edgar was the man for the job. Staffing was short, they needed help to meet the deadline, you're the only one who can help, Edgar!

So, for the past week of his life, Edgar spent every minute of his shift at his desk. Instead of sipping at his tea in conference rooms and shirking responsibility of tasks to others, he was checking reference numbers for each sector of airspace against the updated classification code list and then manually creating each computer file for the sector. It was mind-numbing work at best and had taken him a painfully long time to remember the proper process, but once completed it would make tracking and updating significantly faster. Looking at the pile remaining on his desk, he estimated about two more hours of work ahead. It was Friday and looking at the clock he realized the end of his shift was only minutes away.

Reluctantly he sat down, picking up the first pile. Damned if he was coming in on his weekend to work the rest of this. He began the arduous task, and a few painfully slow hours later he had only two files left. He checked the time again, and a slight hope filled him. With a little luck, he might actually be off in time for the finale of The Earl's Handmaiden. It promised to be a doozy. He went in for another sip of his tea and his pudgy finger missed the loop, spilling the tea across the two remaining files.

"Bugger!" he said louder than he'd intended, snatching the files out of the spilled tea. He set the files in a dry spot and went about cleaning his desk. It didn't take him long so he decided to hurry up and finish. Good thing he didn't need these files anymore after tonight. He logged the first file without problem, but the second file was an issue. The tea had made it into the file and the ink was splotchy. Was that an eight or a six?

The hell with it, he thought, six it is. The Earl waits for no man, he mused, smiling to himself at the thought of his show. He checked the reference number against that of the file and logged it unrestricted. He rapidly completed the last file in the computer system and shredded the physical copy. The last of the work done, he logged off and went home, completely unaware that his action marked the sector containing one of the most secret and prodigious schools in the UK as open airspace. While it would take several years, his mistake would forever change the wizarding world of which he knew nothing about.