By Steve2
Author's Note: This is a work of fiction. I do not own anything related to DC Comics or its characters. I do not own anything related to Harry Potter or its characters. This is just a bit of silliness that came to me and wouldn't leave until I put it to paper. Or something like that.
XX-o0o-XX
"You have a call! You have a call!" intoned an ominous voice similar to Vincent Price just before he would break out into a cackle.
Zatanna Zatara's eyes cracked open as she looked at the bedside digital clock.
"Who the hell…?" she muttered, fumbling to find the damn phone.
"You have a call! I told you that you have a call. Ah-hah-hah-hah-haaaa!"
"Shut it, Vinny," Zatanna muttered darkly while realizing her enchanted phone was also enchanted to not shut up until the ringing stopped. Much like a normal phone, only it sounded better to call it enchanted.
"Who is it!" she shouted into Vinny's ear as she lifted the phone out of his hand and put it up to her left ear.
"Miss Zatanna?" a polite British-sounding voice said calmly.
"Yes?! Do you know what time it is?!"
"Certainly. It is 4:38am local time in San Francisco, California, United States. Did I catch you at a bad time?"
Zatanna grit her teeth as she rubbed the sleep out of her head. Or lack of sleep since she had only gotten to bed a couple hours earlier. Still, the voice sounded amused and… wait a minute…
"Power?"
"The one and only, Miss Zatanna. I do apologize for the early morning call for you, but I thought you might wish for some information in order to prepare for it."
"Do you mind if I record this conversation?" she reached out to poke Vinny to start the recording.
"Certainly, Miss Zatanna. Once you press Vincent's left eye I shall begin my narrative."
"Ow!" Vinny mumbled as the recorder started.
"Ready," a now-alert Zatanna Zatara said.
"Wonderful. I wanted to give you a heads up that one Sirius Black has just left England on a flight headed towards America. Metropolis specifically. His flight is now wheels-up and should arrive later today."
"Sirius Black," Zatanna tried to remember the significance of the name.
"He is one of those Blacks," Power supplied the missing piece.
"Oh! Right. I thought he was in Azkaban for treason and oath-breaking," Zatanna recalled the name. "Did he break out? Is he looking to start up a cult following here?"
"He was released years ago, actually. False charge."
"I'm not following the reason for this call," Zatanna admitted.
"Sirius Black is currently going on a world-wide walkabout. First stop, Metropolis. As part of his walkabout activities, he wishes to explore becoming a hero. A… superhero if you catch my meaning."
"What's his power… oh crap! He's a wizard! He's got a ton of powers!"
"Correct. Plus his upbringing was in the British Magical society…"
"Could be worse," Zatanna summarized off the top of her head.
"And… as part of the Original 20."
Power paused as Zatanna processed that bit of news.
"Oh crap!" Zatanna realized what that also entailed. After all she'd had the oh-so-wonderful experience of dealing with those backward, egotistical, self-absorbed, idiotic blowhards in Britain before. And if a wizard was going to become a superhero without knowing what that really entailed… she wasn't sure if a city would still be standing when they finished… or still exist. But that wasn't the worst part.
Being one of the Original 20 made it worse. Significantly worse.
"Indeed," Power agreed with her summation.
XX-o0o-XX
2B: Meeting Room DiscussionsXX-o0o-XX
Somewhere not on the planet Earth, but near enough to matter, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cybog, Flash, and J'onn J'onzz assembled into a conference room with Zatanna. She gave an overview of who was on his way to Metropolis, an overview of his abilities, played Vincent's recording and brought up a picture of Sirius Black from his wanted poster days.
Batman was glad that Zatanna had the foresight to at least give them as much information as she had on this Sirius Black. Unlike some people he had worked with who would have simply said, "Some wizard is coming to town; take care of it."
"…and because his powers can rewrite a city, that is why we need to ensure Sirius Black is properly trained as a hero," Zatanna finished.
The Flash operated at a speed well beyond anyone else in the world, as well as much of the cosmos, and as such, tended to let his mind drift. A lot. He did pay attention, but when a person spoke in real time for all of 20 seconds, it might as well as been 20 hours to say those few words. Which is why the Flash needed to summarize as much as he could. "So let me summarize this. One: There is a wizard on a plane heading for Metropolis."
"Yes," answered Zatanna, well aware of Flash's wandering thoughts.
"He wants to be a superhero and has the mojo to back him up."
"Yes."
"He can change anything into anything else."
"Transfigure, and yes," Zatanna agreed.
"And we need to train him up to be a hero."
"A bit simple, but yes."
"I still don't get why we have to train this wizard to be a hero instead of just shipping him back to where he came, or better yet, just arresting him once he does something he shouldn't," Cyborg said.
"Oh! Forgot to mention this. The reason it is so important to train this specific wizard is that while other wizards can have their escapades mitigated or even reversed by any of the world's aurors, he is of the really ancient nobility, part of a group known as the Original 20."
"What does that actually mean?" Cyborg said.
"History lesson," she began. "The first wizarding school was built in England about 1000 AD. This began the unification of wizards and witches across the world as part of a global society. For the next two centuries treaties between magical societies were created. In 1215, the Magna Carta was signed. Around that time the Original 20 came into being. These 20 families were the original magical moneylenders."
"I don't understand the significance," J'onn J'onzz admitted. He already knew that humans were crazy.
"The significance," Zatanna started, "was the clauses they added to their magical contracts for moneylending."
"Let me guess," Batman said. "What they say goes, or else."
"Close," Zatanna replied. "It was more along the lines of: 'I won't screw you over as long as you allow me, and any other heads of my family line to do whatever magic I want whenever I want with no restrictions.' Of course, the penalty clause was very strict to the point it would bankrupt the person borrowing money."
"If it's just money, that doesn't sound so bad," Superman suggested.
"It's worse than you think," Zatanna pointed out. "The Original 20 kept going for another century, being the moneylenders not just for England, but the known world. People and governments borrowed from them. Enter the goblins. They eventually become the wizarding world's moneylenders, thus pushing out the Original 20. But the Original 20 contracts were still in effect as long as the families still existed."
"How bad financially are we talking about if this Black's magic is countered by another magical?" Batman said.
"Global financial meltdown."
"Financials of magicals only?" Batman clarified.
"Not any longer," Zatanna informed. "That meltdown will start with the magical societies but will quickly escalate to all markets across the world. Then things get worse as about a million magical people in the world need to find jobs and money for their hungry families. Figure at least 10 percent of them will go criminal. That's about 100 thousand people with powers similar to Black who we would need to fight on a constant basis."
"And now the picture comes into focus," Superman said, realizing how bad things could go.
"So how'd this guy end up in the clink if he could command others to let him go?" Flash wondered aloud.
"I wondered the same thing. My best guess was that he wasn't head of his family then and didn't get to be head until he was out. And only the head of a family gets to wield Original 20 authority."
Batman frowned. "Isn't there a way around what he does?"
"Yes," Zatanna replied. "A majority vote by the remaining heads of families of the original 20 can force any reversal of any of its members. That was a clause stipulated by all the wizarding world governments in 1637."
"Can't we just contact these remaining heads of families and get a blanket reversal for anything this Sirius Black does?" Superman hoped. He really, really didn't want a wizard coming to Metropolis. After all, Superman was strong, fast, could fly, and was invulnerable, but even he was susceptible to magic.
Zatanna shook her head. "No. Reason: the Original 20 is now down to just seven families. One is Black, so that leaves six. One is missing and has been for eight years. Down to five now. Another is not of age and his grandmother, acting as regent of the family, cannot dispute anything Black does due to that wonderful backward British law enforcing sex discrimination. All disputes of the remaining 20 must be done by heads of families that are male, and of adult age."
Batman shook his head. "I hesitate to ask and suspect I know the answer, but what about the remaining four families?"
"Two families exist with only women members. One in France. The other in Germany. When they are of age, once they marry, their husband will become the head of that line and can vote. Until then, they have no say-so in what Black does. Of the final two families, one has its head of household confined to the magical psych ward and is unable to pass his position to his brother who would be next in line. That family is in India. And the last family, this one in Norway, consists of one elderly male who thinks he is a tree."
"A tree? Shouldn't he be in the magical psych ward as well?" Flash suggested.
"You would think, but he's not a danger to himself since he actually managed to transfigure himself into a tree. Problem here is that he won't turn back. And no one has the authority to make him do so. And once he goes, the remaining Original 7 families will become 6 families. And we are still a few years away from any of those families helping out here. This is why we need to find Sirius Black and help him become a superhero."
"Agreed," Batman replied. "Left unchecked he will be a menace."
"Sounds like he will be a menace regardless," Wonder Woman theorized.
"Agreed," Batman replied again. "But hopefully a menace that will put things back the way he found it. Let's get eyes on Black now."
Once the senior JLA members agreed that Sirius Black needed hero-training, Batman immediately implemented a plan to intercept the wizard by sending several non-powered Watchtower workers (who all preferred the term 'operatives' thank you very much) to the airport to locate and either intercept Sirius Black, or at least follow him to a destination.
"What's the op, Joe?" asked operative #2.
"Same as always, Bob," operative #1 replied. "Another goose chase. Same as last time. That's all they ever use operatives like us for."
"Damn. I was hoping for something good this time."
"C'mon, let's check the arrival boards and then get something to drink while we wait."
Two hours, thirteen minutes, three coffees (each), and four trips to the restroom (each) later, both operatives were still waiting to sight their target to exit customs. They never did notice a glamoured man exit the men's room on the check-in side of the airport, look for someone for a few minutes, drop the glamor before smiling at someone he met on a flight, and escorting that flight attendant out the airport on their way to a nice hotel where he could spend the night and recover from his jet lag.
XX-o0o-XX
Author's Note:
I used 1st person narration in chapter 1 and 3rd person narration in this chapter. I will admit that this was unintentional, and happened as I am currently working on multiple stories so the 1st vs. 3rd went by my edits when it shouldn't have. However, I am currently working on yet another story where I intentionally mix first and third narration styles within the same chapter, so all is not lost. I will not change what has already happened, and instead work on making upcoming chapters work with the first and third narrations. After all, it is good practice for my other story.