Outside Interference

Chapter 10

Mizuchi walked carefully down the aisle of the rail carriage. Is was cramped enough for normal humans to try and walk through. Her proportions meant having to press right up against a wall, for her and anyone else to pass each other. Most of the compartments were already full, either with family-groups, or friends from the same year level. A few of the eleven-year-old stragglers were invited to join a few of these groups. You could almost feel the happiness radiating off them, as they found potential new friends.

Just as she entered another carriage, she saw two first years, a boy and a girl, forcefully ejected from a compartment. The boy fell pretty hard. "Scram, Firsties!" shouted a voice from inside it. Mizuchi ran forwards to check on them.

"Oh, look! It's a Weasley!" jeered one of the four ...sixth?... years in the compartment. "Come to coddle the ickle babies?" The compartment door was slammed shut, and the occupants started jeering at them, and hurling insults, through the glass.

Mizuchi helped the boy to stand up, and checked on the condition of both children. "Are you two alright?" she asked.

The boy shook his head, still sniffling, and showed her his wand. It was snapped in two, only held together by the hair that made up its core. "They broke my wand."

"There should be one or two teachers aboard. We"ll just have to have a chat with one of them," she calmly replied. A mischievous grin appeared on her face. "In the meantime, they look like they might be a bit warm in there." Mizuchi touched the door's lock with her hand, and ice immediately formed on its surface, freezing it solid. "Now lets go find a teacher."

They ignored the muffled banging, and shouting on the door.

===/===

The Master walked into Kings Cross Station, barely containing his frustration. The scanner he had cobbled together out of his key, and various components from his cell in Dartmoor wasn't the most precise of instruments, and seemed to have multiple signal-ghosts.

He had traced the first signal to some rural backwater, and realised he was going the wrong way, when he saw the distinct outlines of twin radio towers, covered in parabolic dishes. UNIT's new communications relay obviously contained more than a few spare parts 'donated' by the Doctor, as there were at least five signal traces on his scanner, two of them overlapping. He had then seen one of the traces vanish, and shortly afterwards the distinct yellow car the Doctor drove could be seen leaving the complex. The next signal was the Doctor's TARDIS, the signal was strong, and that blasted police box was there, when he sneaked into the laboratories.

Now he was here, in some dusty transit station, surrounded by primitives, and their noisy offspring. The signal trace was tantalisingly close, yet intermittent, almost as if someone or something was trying to block it.

He walked closer, towards train platform 9, trying to ignore the humans with even more ghastly tastes in clothing than normal. The scanner indicated there was a signal towards the barrier on his right, so he pushed through the throng of people, towards train platform 10, knocking over a family, with a couple of small children.

"Watch where you're going!" shouted a voice.

"He nearly hurt Billy!" cried a young child.

The Master ignored them. The signal was now coming from his left. He went back towards train platform 9, knocking over more trolleys as he went. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

After doing this several times, he came to realise the signal was somehow coming from inside the barrier.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave the station," said an authoritative voice. "You are disrupting the passengers."

The Master looked up from his scanner, and into the face of a patrolling policeman. "Go play on the railway tracks!" the Master said dismissively.

The policeman turned, and walked towards train platform nine.

There were several horrified cries, as the policeman stepped off the edge of the platform, followed, by awed gasps, and cheers. The Master turned, to see the policeman being raised, one-handed, by a young man. He was six-foot-tall, and had red hair. He was wearing a beige-and-black version of what he recognised as an early 21st century law enforcer's tactical uniform. Every time he tried to set the policeman on the platform, the policeman would try to walk back off the edge. Some of the people whispered. "Did he just use the Imperius Curse on that Muggle Auror?"

The young man then did some odd hand gesture, and the policeman went limp. He then carefully lowered the unconscious body to the ground, and looked directly at the Master. Without taking his eyes off him, the young man tapped what at first-glance looked like a hearing-aid in his left ear. "Greyhound, this is Kaiju three. Dartmoor is missing its number one resident. He is currently on my twelve. Please advise."

He paused, briefly, as if listening to a response, and his eyes went unfocussed for about two seconds.

::Ding::Dong::Ding::

The railway station's PA system chimed.

"A fire has been reported in the toilets near train platform 9. All commuters are requested to please evacuate the area in an orderly manner. Repeat. A fire has been reported in the toilets near train platform 9. All commuters are requested to please evacuate the area in an orderly manner."

The PA system was somehow speaking in the boy's voice.

As everyone else backed away from the scene, The Master looked closer at the, almost-familiar, person still looking directly at him. He realised that the brief moment he boy's eyes had gone unfocussed was the only window he would have had to have tried to run. He reached towards his waist, and was shocked to find his TCE was missing. He then noticed a movement in the corner of his eye.

"You're out of practice, Fern," commented the boy. "He noticed you."

The Master turned his head, to see a woman with green-coloured hair. 'Fern' was wearing similar clothes to 'Hiroshi'. Her right hand held what looked like a shotgun, aimed at him ...and was twirling his TCE in her left hand... There was a young woman, dressed as a maid, cowering behind her.

===/===

Horace Slughorn sat in his compartment, discussing potions with young Severus, when there was a knock at its door.

Horace looked out the window to see a tall red-haired girl, he hadn't seen before. She would be that transfer student, he thought. She was accompanying two teary eyed first years. He opened the door, a look of concern on his face. "Oh dear! What's happening here?" he asked.

"Sorry to disturb you, Sensei," apologised Mizuchi. "Sam and Millie, here, were thrown out of their compartment by four Sixth-year students. Is it alright if they share your compartment?"

"Sure, sure. Come in," he replied, gesturing for the two children to join him.

"We also have a further complication," Mizuchi held the boy's wand for Horace to see. "They broke his wand."

"That's terrible!" he replied, aghast. "How could they do such a thing?"

Mizuchi ducked down, and joined them in the compartment. "I know these can be expensive to replace."

"Anywhere between seven and ten Galleons, depending on materials," replied Horace.

"I can't afford that," wailed the boy.

"You shouldn't have to, Sam," replied the girl. "Those bullies should be made to pay for a new one."

"They won't," replied Mizuchi. "I know their type." She hesitated for a moment."...there may be a way to repair the wand."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Severus, from next to Mizuchi. "You can't fix a broken wand."

"There isa way," she replied. "However, the procedure is military-grade magic, and requires me to have a paper-trail, especially because it's 'morally grey' to give a child military equipment," she looked towards Sam. "Once you've been sorted, we'll need permission from your Head of House, Principal Dumbledore, and your parents, or legal guardians. The procedure itself is fairly simple, and will only take me about 45 minutes to perform, as I already have the necessary materials available."

"What materials would those be?" Horace asked suspiciously.

"The wand, of course," Mizuchi replied. "A drop of Sam's blood, and the hair or feather of a completely different magical creature to the wand's core."

"W-why do you need my blood?" Sam asked.

"It 'resynchronises' the wand's core to reinforce its bond with you," she replied. "Mr Ollivander was fascinated to find out there was a whole branch of wand making he knew nothing about. My sister-in-law, Renata, is better at wands than I am, so he's going to have a chat with her some time."

"Renata Slytherin?" Horace asked. "I heard she had a compelling reason to not attend Hogwarts, but nobody elaborated."

"Sally not being even a year old yet would be the primary reason," Mizuchi commented. "I'm sure her being a Lamia is only of minor consequence."

"What's a Lamia?" Millie asked.

Severus appeared to be paying a lot more attention to the conversation. "A Lamia is a mythical creature that supposedly has the upper-body of a woman of great beauty, and the lower-body of a serpent."

"Not so 'mythical' as you would think," Mizuchi switched on her wrist computer. A holographic projection of Sally making her first, tentative, slither towards Renata appeared. "Sally is just starting to get around without crawling."

There was a knock on the compartment door. It was Remus. "Mizuchi, one of the Slytherin prefects is a touch upset with whoever it was that froze his brother's compartment door."

"You froze their door?" Horace was shocked. "Why?"

"It was Millie's and Sam's compartment, and securing the door was the best way I could think of to keep their unattended luggage safe," she said, feigning innocence .

"How do I unfreeze it?" Horace asked.

"Get the trolley lady to touch the ice with her tea urn," she replied.

===/===

Auror Wilson stepped quietly into Kings Cross Station. It was strangely empty, and a lot of muggles were outside. "Why is it so empty?" he whispered.

"I heard one of the platform guards mention a fire drill," Auror Green replied, from his right.

As they got closer to the entry to Platform 9 ¾, they noticed the reported 'wizard in black' and the unconscious Muggle Auror. The young man in the beige was obviously standing guard over him, and there was a young woman, similarly dressed, guarding another muggle.

"We'll have to Obliviate those three, after we take down the target," whispered Green. He was just drawing his wand, when half a dozen muggle soldiers walked in from the other direction, weapons drawn.

"Lieutenant Dwllphyrn, Sergeant O'Reilly," addressed the one who was obviously in charge. "Report."

The young woman's eyes, still fixed on the 'wizard in black' spoke up. "Good Morning Captain Yates. I'd salute, but my hands are currently occupied. We were just escorting archivist O'Reilly to the train, when we noticed a commotion amongst the families that had just stared leaving the platform. It was then that 'Mr Magister' seemed to have ordered Constable Jones onto the tracks. I know it's a breach in protocol, but Sergeant O'Reilly had to use a sleeping spell, to stop the poor man."

Spell? Wilson thought. Muggles aren't supposed to know about magic, let alone have wizards on their payrolls, and he's too young to be an undercover Auror.

"Come, come, Mr Yates," said Magister. "Magic? Spells? The girl is clearly delusional. I was simply out on a day release for good behaviour, and wanted to watch the trains."

Yates's eyes glazed over, and he turned his pistol towards the two in beige. The rest of the squadron also had similar glazed looks.

"God damn it!" exclaimed Dwllphyrn. "Hiroshi, he's pre-installed a set of suggestions into the retrieval squad. Can you counter it?"

"Not without risking someone getting shot," replied Hiroshi. "Mike? Why are you pointing your sidearm at us? You're supposed to be bringing your aunt Matilda, and her daughters over for dinner tonight, remember?"

Wilson could see Yates trying to resist whatever it was Magister had cast on him. Statutes be damned! "Stupefy!"

Magister turned to face them.

"Shit!" swore Hiroshi. "Fern, do it. Don't forget about our respiratory bypasses."

Magister's face showed true surprise, before Wilson's vision blurred. Dryad spores! Fuck! I've already inhaled them!

...darkness...