A/N: Two chapters in one day! Cheers!
Chapter 11
November 13, 2015
Algiz Warders and Research Industries, La Defénse, France
Maximillian D'Artagan takes a swig of bourbon from a shot glass, looking at the setting sun and the orange hues of clouds above on his company's high-rise office floor. Everything around him would not be out of place for a muggle CEO of a multinational company.
His office has an elegantly polished oak desk, comfortable leather seats with cushioning charms embedded in runes and his bookshelves filled with copies of the bi-monthly Runes Journal and small notebooks filled with rune sequences that he broke from his running around lost tombs as a cursebreaker for fun. Not that anyone would see those little gems of wisdom. If someone tries to take it, he or she loses an arm and that's just the beginning of the thief's problems.
He looks at the ministry folder on his desk and scowls at it, "How is it my fault that my weapons are being sold on the free market and now those idiot extremists got their hands on it? Best excuse really, best lie hidden in truth. The black market pays better than the free market after all. Still, those ISIL folks are getting too cocky with the gloves. I bet the Ministry has someone already investigating. That last transaction of course is really the hard thing to take."
Maximillian sighs and lets his hand wander through the spines of the many notebooks he's compiled. "Feared and respected. I'm actually impressed that my little prototype worked for a militant-trained squib and nearly besting the squad they sent."
A knock interrupts his train of thought and his secretary Helena Cervantes could be heard from his room, "Bonjour Max, Apolline Delacour wishes to see you." A boyish smile appears on his ruggedly handsome face. He smoothes over his jet black hair. 'Ah, the only woman I couldn't win over. My old friend and rival Louis is a lucky man.' He tells himself and opens the door for Apolline.
"Good to see you Apolline," he greets her, "what do I owe your presence in visiting me? No problems I hope."
Apolline smiles widely at him and kisses his cheek. "Hmm, lavender, let me guess? Your flavor of the month is a red head isn't it?"
Maximillian chuckles at his keen friend and says, "Caught me there. You were always good at guesswork based on women's perfume when it comes to my bedwarmers. Well, it this a social visit? Being alone in the house when your grandchildren are in England would do that to a person."
Apolline spots the Ministry folder and mutters, "I've heard Louis' rantings about those idiots blaming the supplier and then I decided to visit my best friend and catch up a bit from our monthly discussions about runes."
Maximillian shrugs and takes his seat. "Definitely that one Apolline, but it's really part of the business after all. The Russians and the Americans are always trying to one up each other on the political stage, that's why I have a business in defense contracts besides the free market availability of my rune work."
"Don't worry about those idiots. Heck, since Louis is now bogged down in the Ministry in his research work, we felt that I should visit you more." Apolline states, "I have missed our discussions on rune works and charms."
D'Artagan nods and pours himself a glass of wine, while offering another glass to Apolline. "That I do and I wish Louis was here because I could use a partner of his caliber here in the research and fabrication. But I can only stay an hour. I have a meeting with the Russian Ambassador since Russia has stepped up its efforts in that Syrian war." He apologizes and they begin to discuss the Runemaster Journal's latest findings about the runes called Baybayin script from the Philippines and how the moon language works on common spells and potions.
November 13, 2015
War Room, Enjolras Residence – Early evening
Eponine chuckles at Louis describing his meeting with Percy and Marguerite St. Just from his Hologram. "Alright, no more queen jokes. That was horrible for him to take it that seriously. HQ would do. I bet they're laughing at you and Muninn."
"I suppose you'll accept at us being tagged as the Lethifold Division?" Louis asks.
"As long as we don't have to worry about dragon hide armors, but firearms damage is a concern to us. Do you have anything in the works there?" Eponine responds while seeing Courfeyrac tinker with the CAT-6 LAN cable to the computer and rune cluster engraved on it.
"I'm sorry, but all we've got at the moment is dragon hide armor. We've enchanted it a bit to slow down physical objects but that's about as much as we can do. Anyway, I have to go now. Muninn is about to contact me about a lead we have, Huginn out."
Hermione walks towards Eponine, as she shakes her head and sees the hologram blink out. "How's the link from Mr. Valjean?"
Attaching one more cable, she is filled with wonder and finds a holographic map of Paris from a satellite view. "Can I zoom in?"
"Try it." Feuilly says underneath the table.
She takes her wand out and points at where her home roughly is. A moment later, she sees three people walking outside her home. "Auguste's coming home with Azelma and Bahorel."
A few moments after and the door opens to reveal the three. "Looks like your little tinkering works." Eponine remarks.
Feuilly and Combeferre gave each other a high five for a job well done. Hermione sits beside Eponine and begins to tinker with the holo-map. "You two are brilliant. I could never have thought to connect the computers into a emitter." She remarks at the two.
Meanwhile, Bahorel shows them ceramic-plated Kevlar vests. "I've gotten this from one of my friends that works with the Foreign Legion and he told me that they use it in different militaries around the world. He also told me of a concept of doing these into smaller cubes, place it inside cloth and wrap it around the vest like tiles would."
Hermione comes in and adds, "They actually call it dragon skin as well, I haven't gotten to update with muggle news, but I've seen how it works in one of those weapon shows muggles have."
She gently cuts the lining of the cloth containing the ceramic place and she cuts it evenly and smoothly before levitating it and lining it in mid air like a group of small square tiles forming a larger square. She also conjures a bit of thick gel behind it, after which, she fires a standard piercing hex on square. They see the small tile it hits vaporized but the gel is untouched.
"Perhaps we can bother them with ceramic plate, the real ones of course, because the transfigured ones only remain in that state for a certain amount of time." Azelma suggests and sees everyone agree with her. "It looks like we have one problem down, Eponine. Dragon skin behind dragon scale vest is some wonderful irony in armor."
Eponine grins at them and wobbles towards Auguste. "Welcome back." She holds his hands and sees his wounds are much better.
"Glad to be back. Since we don't have missions, did you go to work with Joly and Comberre today?" Auguste asks, while Bahorel ushers Azelma and Hermione to help him fabricate a prototype.
"I did even if they want me to take a break in the trauma section of Hôtel Dieu." Eponine answers him softly.
Enjolras chuckles, "I'm pretty sure you won't until Ian is due. On another matter, I've spotted Hermione, but where are Ron, Harry and Luna?"
"Ron and Harry are back in England but they're placing their vacation leaves for now and using Australia Luna is gathering information on the name of the company where those gloves came from. Are you familiar with Algiz Warders and Research Industries?" Eponine replies and sits back down. Auguste grabs another chair and proceeds to give Eponine a clothed backrub just to ease her back pain.
"I am. One of the riches companies in France and has its hands on warding, rune research and fabrication of applicable products. I suppose it was some really good runes that could do so much damage. They're expected to be on the list." Enjolras voices out his opinion on the subject, "but I think we'll have to go to the warzone itself to have definite proof or a lead at least on where they're getting the equipment."
"That we do," Eponine mutters and suddenly remembers something, "by the way, you don't happen to have an update on my good for nothing father?"
"That guy got away again because he didn't successfully help the refugees when we got there and didn't violate any French laws. The Greek ministry is already overworked so they didn't manage to submit a case of his head as well. Slippery bastard should have been a barrister instead of some common con man." Enjolras grumbles while Eponine feels a kick.
"I think Ian is agreeing with you." She remarks and they look at each other before they both laugh at the thought of old man Thenadier become a lawyer. "He doesn't have the fortitude to be under the Richelieu house."
"You still remember our sorting?" Auguste reminisces and Eponine nods.
"I definitely remember it. It makes me want to see Beauxbatons and Madame too. Those three batons are always good for a laugh."
"Auguste Enjolras!" Madame Maxime calls and a neat curly blond-haired boy of eleven steps forward. His soft innocent eyes and fixate on three batons of equal length, which are on top of a silver tray.
The headmistress guides Auguste to his chair and she taps her wand on the tray and the three batons begin to hit each other in mid air. From the other students sorted ahead of him, only one flies out and taps the student in the head to sort them into the houses of Richelieu for craftiness, Peverell for ingenuity or Le Fay for creativity.
After nearly five minutes of dueling each other, one falls back down on the tray and the remaining batons zoom towards him and stop half a foot away. With both floating in front of him, Madame Maxime urges, "It seems the batons want you to choose your destiny, Mr Enjolras. Don't worry about it, there are no wrong answers with this one."
Auguste picks the one on his left and red sparks come out. "Welcome to the Richelieu house, Auguste Enjolras." She smiles at him and he joins the table for his house."
He notices a girl at the back of the line fidgeting over her second hand robes and unease of the area around her. A moment later, they lock eyes and Enjolras glances over the batons and nods to let her know it will be fine.
After a few more students, her name is called out. "Eponine Thenadier!" A black haired girl with sad eyes walks towards Madame Maxime and the headmistress whispers to her. "Don't be afraid, Ms. Thenadier. You are not dictated by the actions of that man and will forge a better path."
Her sad eyes changes to a resolute one and she sits on the table to be sorted. Again, the batons duel in the air. Each one hitting each other viciously compared to Enjolras' batons. The fifth minute passes and the one in the middle zooms off towards Eponine and she grabs it before the other two get closer. The baton lets out royal blue sparks and all three go back to the silver tray. "Welcome to the Le Fay house, Ms. Thenadier. I hope you enjoy your time here in Beauxbatons."
"We were the first baton stalls in the last five decades then and then your brother Gavroches shows us up in having the batons fight it out for seven minutes. It would have gone longer if he didn't stand up and grab the nearest baton." Enjolras remarks with a grin on his lips after remembering their sorting.
"You know Gav, he takes his own course of action which is why he survived on the streets, while maman and I made do with what we could gather, buy or steal for food." Eponine shivers from those memories and Auguste kisses her forehead. "That's why we're here and doing our best to have a better world for our children."