Ben, as Jetray, surveyed the museum courtyard, there was a large smouldering crater in the middle, one of the trees lay smouldering nearby, in the centre of the crater was the crumbled remains of a very familiar rock monster, 'the question is where's its master?' As if to answer his question there was an explosion on the rooftop nearby and a piece of building almost hit him as he swooped away. He floated there and as the dust cleared he saw a tall man in a tweed jacket holding a stick, fighting a shorter man who was dressed in hooded black robes, black gloves and an ornate silver beaked mask, he was holding a white cane with a black carved dragon on top. They were locked in what was probably a very intense fight for a magician, but it looked like two beams of light hitting each other, one white, one turquoise.
"I've got to say Auror, I'm impressed, most wizards cannot even hold their own against me," the wizard said in an English accent, he intensified the beam that was emanating from his cane, the turquoise turning sapphire blue, the meeting point of the beams shifted nearer to the man in tweed who was now sweating profusely and gasping for breath.
"Then you've gasp been fighting some gasp pretty pitiful wizards," he spun out the way and shot what was probably another spell at the masked man, who dismissed it with a beam from the cane.
"Hey, guess who!" Ben called shooting the wizard in the back with Jetray's eye blasts.
"You infernal bat, I shall remove your wings and feed them to you while you're still alive," he shot multi-coloured beams of light erratically at Ben who responded with his more accurate neuroshock blasts, however, the blasts were having no effect, they seemed to dissipate across the man's robes.
The man in tweed had now recovered and had started shooting his own magic at the man in robes, but they also had no effect, trying for a change of tactic Ben hit the Omnitrix turning himself into, "Humungousaur," he ran at the robed man, who rolled out the way.
"Be gone monster," the robed man shouted, a sharp pain started in Ben's back, causing him to collapse, "ventus tria," suddenly a great gust of wind blew Ben over the side of the building.
Ben was caught by a magenta platform of energy with Gwen and Kevin, "good to see you waited for backup," Gwen said, Ben just groaned in response, the platform deposited them on the rooftop just as the masked figure finally defeated the man in tweed.
"And now, Auror, you will die," the masked figure raised his cane as an orb of magenta energy hit him in the side of the head. "Who dares to strike a servant of the Dark Lord?" He bellowed turning towards the new arrivals, "I see you have friends monster, no matter, you shall all perish together."
"Dude, who are you?" Kevin asked as he put his hand on the concrete of the roof and absorbed the concrete, creating a second skin of concrete around himself.
"My name is of no consequence in my service of the Dark Lord, but you are interesting, I know a doctor in Ireland who will pay handsomely for all of you, preferably alive. But, if you resist, I'm sure he'll understand," he raised his cane, "expelliarmus," the spell hit Gwen's barrier, Gwen responded with a fist of pink energy, which knocked the masked man back, but did not appear to injure him. The reeling magician looked around him at Humungousaur and Kevin closing in before he started shouting, "fools, you may have superior numbers on this day, but I will return, and I will destroy you," he vanished like an image going down an invisible plug hole floating four feet in the air, accompanied with a cracking sound.
Gwen, Kevin, and Ben (now in human form) rushed to the man in tweed's side, "I'm fine," he said as he brushed off attempts to help him to his feet, "although I really should invest in some armoured clothing. My name is Thom, it's a pleasure to meet you," he held out his hand, which the three of them hesitantly shook and introduced themselves.
"Um, Thom, why were you fighting him, and who was he?" Ben asked as Thom picked up a wand from the floor.
"It's my job, I'm an Auror," he said as if that explained everything, upon seeing confused their confused faces he sighed before elaborating, "magical law enforcement, you at least should know," he pointed at Gwen.
"Me? Why me?"
"Because you're a witch, or sorceress, magician, whatever term you want to use. Did your teachers never tell you what an Auror was?" He asked in disbelief.
"I don't have any teachers, I'm self-taught," Gwen said proudly.
"Self-taught?" Thom asked slowly, "do you know how dangerous and irresponsible it is to teach yourself magic? There's a reason it's against the law, please tell me someone taught you the basics at least, and where is your wand?"
"I don't have a wand."
"Wandless and self-taught? Oh my Gods, the paperwork on this one, oh hang on, I'm getting ahead of myself, if you're wandless, you might be an exception, show me your magic," Gwen lit up on hand, Thom smiled and his eyes lit up slightly, "ah, mana magic, that's fine, you're not my problem, I'll let the sanctuary deal with you."
"Sanctuary?"
"We're getting off track," Kevin butted in, "who was that man?"
"I have no idea, but I know what he is, he's Death Eater, a dark wizard who followed Voldemort, the Dark Lord who fought a secret wizarding war over thirteen years ago. After his defeat his followers were either captured, scatter or some carried on the fight, the fellow we fought is one of the latter, he's a fanatic, and this is why I hate fanatics."
"So, how do we track him?" Ben asked.
"We don't, he'll come to us, he's after a dangerous spell book in the museum, he'll be back, and I'll be waiting, this time with better shields and wards."
"Dad, are you up there?" Came a voice from the ground, Thom rushed over to the edge of the building and looked over.
"Ah, there's Janet, I wondered what took her," he said smiling, the others joined him, "Janet we're up here."
"Great," she replied sarcastically, "how do I get up there?"
"Coming down," Thom jumped off the building, and bounced off an invisible, something, it is rather hard to tell what something is when it is invisible. He landed without a scratch on him. Ben turned into Big Chill and swooped down, whilst Kevin and Gwen rode down on a platform of mana, Ben and Gwen both recognised the girl instantly.
"Oh hi Janet," Gwen said smiling.
"Hi Gwen, hi Ben," Janet said, waving at them.
"How did you know it was me?" Ben asked.
Janet simply smiled before turning to Thom, "so, what was it?"
"A Death Eater, one of the ones still on the run, and he had some weird rock creature with him that I didn't recognise, I think it's from a kind of magic we don't know about."
"We know what it is," Gwen said as she looked at the rock monster, "they're usually the henchmen of Hex and Charmcaster, although he haven't heard from Hex in about six years, and Charmcaster is currently in jail somewhere, so, someone might have stolen them from her, or just knows how to make them."
"Hmm," Thom rubbed his chin in thought, "we don't want that lunatic wandering about if he knows how to make rock monsters. However, if he knew how to make them then he would have had more than one, no, I think he bought it or stole it, so is being careful in how he uses them. Either way, I'm setting up more wards, I think in hindsight some disapparition wards would be a good idea," Thom walked off towards the museum, twirling his wand as he went.
"He's a bit, eccentric," Kevin said.
"Hello, I'm still here," Janet said, "anyway, thanks for helping Dad, I was really worried that I wouldn't get here in time."
"Well, not to be offensive, but what would you have done?" Kevin asked, "you're so tiny, and like twelve."
"I'm thirteen, and I am still a witch, which means I can do quite a lot," Janet said, Kevin was about to speak when he was silenced by a raised eyebrow.
"How did you know it was me?" Ben asked again.
Janet smiled, "anyway, I'm going to set up a portkey so I can get here sooner next time," she then turned and walked off.
"One day she will answer that question," Ben said quietly, "one day."
