The twenty first chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!
* Review Response:
Remilia - The Scarlet Moon, aznxa21, god of all, fellow, Shadowsmage, FateBurn, Ranmaleopard, Innortal, ultima-owner, Lerris, Penny is wise, Opinr, karthik9, thank you for your reviews, folks!
celf, yes and no. Read this chapter for some more details.
jgkitarel, Jose19, I've answered your reviews via PM.
Impstar, I think you will have to wait for that a little bit. This chapter barely deals with anyone but Harry and Daphne. Harry will meet some of his old friends (and not-so-friends) a bit later.
ShugoYuuki123, Ginga and Subaru made their first appearance all the way back in chapter VIII. Some other StrikerS characters show up at the end of this chapter, though. Also, I've made an attempt of explaining, what the hell had happened to Lutecia's father here.
Exalted Demi-Soul, flames will be used to cook my dinner.
* AN: You really shouldn't tempt Fate like that, Sein.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" or "Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.
"speaking"
"telepathy"
'thinking'
"spells / devices speaking"
written messages
Bureau Agent Potter
chapter XXI: Between the old classmates
"B-But... How?.." Daphne asked. Instead of replying with words, Harry pulled a bang of his hair to the side, revealing the now-faint but still visible lightning-bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. "Potter?!" The Greengrass heiress shouted in shock. "You're the Harry Potter?!"
"The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." The young special investigator said as he gave the pretty witch a dithered smile. "Here I am, in the flesh, standing before you." There was a pause, quite a long one, before Daphne spoke again:
"B-But... They... They've said that you became a squ-.. A squib!" She finally managed to say.
"And do I look like Magic is no more in me?" Harry replied with a shrug. "Anyhow, I don't think that these ruins are the best place for a serious convention. That, and I still need to get you patched up properly..." He then tried to stretch himself, only to wince in pain when his bruised back reminded him that injuries from being thrown into a concrete wall don't magically disappear by themselves. "Myself too, I suppose." He added.
"A-alright." Daphne agreed uneasily. Having being kidnapped earlier today, she was understandably cautious about following Potter anywhere, even if he was the one to free her. Not that she really had a choice here: she was his only witness for this case, whatever it was, even if she had been subdued and knocked unconscious quickly by that drone thingy, so it wasn't like he'd just let he go... That, and she indeed needed to have her arm fixed. His magic hadn't done much beyond dulling the pain.
"Okay." Harry replied, before raising his right hand, where his device was.
The exact nature of that thing was a little beyond Daphne's understanding: on one hand it definitely was channeling spells much like the wands she was used to. On the other hand, it looked more technological than anything she had ever seen in her life. Yet, it seemed to work just fine around magic, even if everyone at Hogwarts – and Beauxbaton and Durmstrang – knew that muggle technology was supposed to stop working in the areas saturated with magic.
Meanwhile, Harry had summoned what looked like a semi-transparent moving image, projected right into the air, depicting what looked like a semi-circular room with matted light-gray walls. Along the curved wall of this room, there were three pairs of workstations with men and women in deep-blue military uniforms doing ...well, something. And at the far end of the room there was a raised platform with another workstation, occupied by quite an intimidating man, who appeared to be the superior to everyone else there.
"Bridge, do you read me?" Harry asked. And, apparently, the people on the other 'end' could hear him. This was almost like a floo call without sticking your head in magical flames, Daphne thought.
"Yes, we do." One of the men from those six bridge bunnies said. "Weren't you supposed to give us the report on your progress half an hour ago?" He asked then.
"There was a couple of things that made it impossible for me to do just that." The young Potter replied. "Either way, I request a permission for transfer aboard of "Leto". And have someone to take the bastard that was the manager of Scaglietti's base to the brig on standby."
"Permission granted. You can transfer at any time you wish." The same man replied.
"Thank you..." The green-eyed teen said then. "Oh, and do tell Aoko-sensei that we are in the need of her assistance. The fight down there had being quite rough."
"Consider it done." Was the reply the young Potter got. Thanking the man once more, Harry closed the communication channel, causing the holographic display to fade away as well. He then returned his attention to Daphne, speaking to her again:
"Before we go up there, there are a few things that I would like to ask from you." The Greengrass heiress let out a hum, telling him that she was listening. "First of all, it would be for the best if you don't mention being a witch before anyone you'll meet aboard of "Leto". I've kept the existence of magical community here a secret, and so should you."
"Huh?" The dark-haired pretty witch breathed out in surprise: she definitely hadn't expected a request like this. "But why? Aren't you magical too?" She asked then.
"Everyone up there is most definitely magical, yes." Harry confirmed. "But..." Here he made a pause, as he was looking for the right words for what he wanted to say next. "Should the Bureau learn about the existence of a wizarding world, they'll wish to make a contact. But since we live according to a different set of morals, a clash of philosophies will almost inevitably occur." There was a small pause, before the young Potter continued: "The likes of Malfoy are too xenophobic to accept anyone different from themselves. And with people like that being a major political force, I can't see a way of avoiding a meeting between them and whoever will end up as the Bureau's representative."
"I see..." Daphne said after a long silence. She herself might not be as radical a pure-blood as Draco or his father or their 'friends' from the circle of the Dark Lord's lieutenants were, but even she was having a lot of trouble accepting the things and magic she had witnessed today. And, if Potter here was any indication, this Bureau – whatever it was – had the power forcefully converting them their own morals and values, should they desire to do so. Yet, like many other pure-bloods, the Greengrass heiress was too comfortable with her current ways of life to desire or accept any changes, be they bad or even good... If hiding her magic from those people would ensure that no one will try to change her life through force, she will keep her mouth shut.
"On the same note..." Harry continued. "I want you to make a vow to never disclose the details of today's events to anyone without an explicit permission from me, or another Bureau's officer." He said.
"B-But..." Daphne tried to protest. "How I'm going to explain why I'm so late home to my parents?" Otherwise, she was actually quite alright with that as she did owe Potter for being saved from the clutches of the man that administered that base – he wanted to turn her into a lab rat, for Merlin's sake!
"You can, of course, say that a criminal on the loose had taken you a hostage. And that after you were rescued, you had to give evidence to the investigation. Just don't ever mention that the criminal was a magic user from another world, okay?" Well, if this was so, the request actually sounded reasonable. Especially since Daphne could just see the panic that the news about the existence of magic users so different from wizards and witches would cause among the rulers and general population of the magical Britain. Everything was already bad enough without that adding to the pile, no thanks to the Dark Lord and the terror his Death Eaters were spreading.
"Fine." She said. "I'll make the oath you want." Potter then made sure that there were no loopholes in the wording of her – something that had actually pleasantly surprised the Greengrass heiress, who couldn't really stand the people who were too trustful for their own good...
"Alright... Let's get going?" Harry asked, once the oath was out of the way. Upon Daphne's nod, a large glowing white runic circle that looked like three eight-pointed stars place one within another appeared under their feet. This circle also included the still-unconscious mad scientist, who had been the manager of the Scaglietti's base, of course. "Dimensional Transfer!" The young Potter called out, and in a flash they were gone from the surface of the Earth.
"Welcome aboard the Bureau's investigatory vessel "Leto"." Harry commented as they faded back into the existence. Too bad, one see only matted light-gray walls from within the transportation chamber... The sight of one's home planet somewhere far away in the blackness of regular space would have been, without any doubts, much much more impressive.
Daphne's attention was then drawn to a pair of petty officers, who saluted to Harry, before picking up the criminal of the mad scientist that he had captured, before dragging him away to somewhere. She might not be exactly knowledgeable about military, but even she knew that barring some special circumstances, it was always the lower ranks that saluted first. Apparently, Potter was pretty high up in hierarchy in this Bureau...
And just as soon as they disappeared behind a corner, another person made an appearance. This time, however, it was a rather petite woman in her mid-thirties with flaming-crimson hair made into two tight buns on the sides of her head. Like pretty much everyone else, she wore that deep-blue uniform, though, with a addition of a white lab coat thrown over it. Once Harry and this woman exchanged a less formal greeting, she turned to addressed Daphne:
"I'm warrant officer Aoko Hoshido, the medic and science officer of this vessel." She said. "And seeing as someone..." Here she shot an annoyed glance at the young Potter, who just smiled sheepishly in response. "...brought you here in such a condition, I'm going to fix you. Don't worry, I'll have you as good as new before you know it. Follow me." She said, before turning on her heels and walking out of the chamber with Harry just a couple of steps behind her... Letting out a sigh, the Greengrass heiress hurried after the two of them.
A short walk later, the three of them entered the red-haired woman's office, which also doubled as the medical bay aboard the investigatory vessel "Leto". And, as the dark-haired witch quickly noticed, it looked absolutely nothing like the hospital wing back at Hogwarts or a ward at the St. Mungo's hospital. Everything in there looked so technological that the dark-haired witch had troubles believing that it actually worked on magic, despite Harry insisting that it indeed was so.
Daphne's doubts, though, disappeared like snowflakes in firestorm when doctor Hoshido began fixing her arm: once the red-haired woman made sure that all bones were where they were supposed to be, she soothed and healed the abused tissues around with a healing spell that made her hands glow with pale green light. It actually was more of less the same spell that Potter himself used on her back at the base, but in a significantly more potent form... Either way, within two minutes the Greengrass heiress was as good as new, and it was now the time for Harry to get fixed.
And as doctor Hoshido worked on healing his back, Daphne couldn't help but notice that underneath his uniform, he was quite well-muscled – something that came as a small surprise to the dark-haired girl as Harry used to be a scrawny kid back when he was still a proper wizard and attended Hogwarts. What's more, having watched him fight, the Greengrass heiress knew that, unlike how it was with a few of her housemates, his muscles weren't just for show... Shaking her head to banish the unnecessary thoughts, Daphne waited rather impatiently for the red-haired woman to finish healing Potter.
"Alright, all done." Aoko said after what felt like hours for the dark-haired witch.
"Thank you, sensei." Harry replied as he put his uniform back on. "Now, if you don't mind, it's about time I started doing my job." When doctor Hoshido nodded, he turned to face Daphne and asked: "Let's go?" It was now the time for her to testify about the events that took place earlier today. And knowing that the sooner she was done with it, the sooner she will be allowed to return home, the young witch nodded in response.
As the two of them left the red-haired doctor's office and headed – presumably – to Harry's own one, the Greengrass heiress decided to finally the question that was bothering for the last ten or so minutes. Namely, how come the vessel she was aboard of experienced absolutely no roll. The weather back in Lancastershire, while nice, was too windy for anything short of Titanic-sized ship to be this stable. Actually, even something that big would rock a little on the waves, but "Leto" didn't. Was it staying in a dry dock or something?
"Potter... Harry, can you tell me, where are we?" Daphne asked. "And I don't mean, the name of the ship we're aboard of. I mean... where on the Earth are we?" The smile the young mage gave her, though, was putting her on guard. It was too mischievous...
"Nowhere." Harry replied casually. "We're in space, roughly thirty seven thousands kilometers above the surface of the Earth." His response was a clear disbelief on the dark-haired girl's face... Letting out a quiet sigh, he took a turn and began walking towards "Leto"'s wardroom that was located right under the bridge. "Come." He said, motioning the Greengrass heiress to follow him.
Not a minute later, the two of them stepped into the wardroom, and Daphne's attention was immediately drawn to the huge panoramic window, through which she could see faraway Earth in the cold dark emptiness of space; the western Europe was already swallowed by the twilight of the approaching night with major cities looking like nothing more than yellowish-while dots, while the world to the west was still illuminated by the Sun...
"Oh my..." Daphne breathed out. Looking at her own home planet and seeing it like this was an unbelievable experience. And then, suddenly, she realized that when Harry said magic users from different worlds, he meant it literally. Thus, his desire to keep today's incident a secret was making much more sense to her now: the news about the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life would cause a much greater panic than the news about a different kind of magic ever could...
"You believe me now?" Harry asked. The black-haired witch, still to awestruck by what she was seeing, merely nodded in response. "Let's go then – the sooner I have you testify about today's events, the sooner you will be allowed to return home." And, after a second-long pause, he added: "And, if you want, I can arrange for a print of such an image to be made for you." Letting out an unintelligible murmur of agreement, the Greengrass heiress allowed herself to be led off the spaceship's wardroom and towards what was Harry's office.
After a minute, the two of them ended up in the "Leto"'s briefing hall: a large but pretty narrow room with a long table able to fit at least twenty men in its center,.. Having offered Daphne a seat, the green-eyed Potter took a chair across the table from her. He then summoned a holographic display showing an empty page, and a similarly-holographic keyboard.
"Now then, shall we begin?" Harry said. He was about to say something more, but was interrupted by a distant sound of explosion. Jumping out of his seat, he raced to the door leading out of the room, but stopped just as he stepped through it. For a couple dozens of seconds, he just stood there, as if having a telepathic conversation with someone. Finally, he shook his head while letting out a small sigh, before turning around and walking back to his seat at the table.
"What happened?" The dark-haired witch asked then.
"The guy I've captured woke up and decided that the secrets of his benefactor were worth more than his life, so he detonated an explosive implanted in his head... Thankfully, the vessel is undamaged and neither of the two privates that were guarding him got harmed seriously. They will deal with it without me." The young Potter explained the situation. "Alright then, back to our business..." And so he began taking Daphne's deposition regarding the events that took place earlier today...
With the drone tinkerer no longer available for questioning due to his rather messy self-inflicted death, Daphne became the only living person who had seen even a glimpse of that Scaglietti-sponsored research facility operating more or less normally. Thus, she ended up being bombarded with question after question by Harry, who tried his best to get as accurate a picture of what had been going on in that base before his attack as was possible.
By the time the young investigator finally ran of question to ask, it was already close to midnight by Greenwich Time. Yet, he was barely able to reconstruct the happenings in the 'main chamber' at the time when Daphne had woken up. Everything transpiring outside of that hall remained a complete mystery to him since the dark-haired witch hadn't actually seen any of it... He was still quite satisfied with the results he got, though.
"Thank you a lot for the information you shared, Ms. Greengrass. It will help the investigation a lot." Harry said as he dismissed the holographic display and keyboard he had been using to write the young witch's testimony down. "Do you want some supper, or shall I send you home straight away?" The dark-haired girl thought about it for a few moments, before making a decision.
"I'd like some tea, please." The green-eyed investigator nodded in response.
"Sure. Let's move to the mess then." He said then, prompting the Greengrass heiress to follow him out of the room they were in at the moment. Which she did. ...And as the two of them were walking down the corridor towards the mess hall, Harry spoke again: "Mind if I ask you a few more questions, the ones completely unrelated to the today's events?"
"Only if you give me some answers as well." The young witch said with a sly smile. "Information does have its price, after all, Potter, and there are many things that I'd like to know."
"You're such a snake, Daphne." The green-eyed special investigator responded with a small sigh, though it was clear that he was actually enjoying this little game.
"I'll take that as a compliment." She replied. "Either way, mind if I go first?" Not really waiting for him to say anything, she continued: "No? Then, maybe you can explain me, what this Bureau you're working for nowadays actually is?"
"Well... First of all, the 'Bureau' is just a shortening for the 'Time-Space Administrative Bureau'. But since it is so well-known out there, no one really bothers to use the full name outside of the official documents and such. As for what it is..." Here, Harry paused for a few seconds, trying to come up with the best analogy. "Have you ever heard about 'United Nations' organization?"
"I have heard about it." Daphne said with a nod. While mostly neutral, her family still played on the political arena, thus she did hear a few things here and there about various forces of the world. "It's muggle's analogue for the ICW, I think."
"Well, more or less." Harry replied. "The Bureau is similar to that, but on a much larger scale. At the moment it has eighty six member worlds, and over a hundred and fifty non-administered worlds that are monitored. Out of those, twelve have a good chance of 'ranking up' into administered worlds within this decade. Furthermore, there is a number of worlds without native populations that are used by the Bureau for various purposes."
"Wow!.." Daphne breathed out. She had troubles imagining the life merely on the other side of the Earth, and this Bureau organization was spanning over a hundred worlds!.. The green-eyed Potter, however, wasn't done with the explanation just yet:
"Unlike, United Nations here on Earth, however, the Bureau does have actual authority over the member worlds, instead of being limited to just giving recommendations. And, administered worlds also don't have their own armed forces: those are assimilated into the united army that does protection and peacekeeping for everyone. Last but not least, the Bureau also includes the branches like Rescue and Wildlife Preservation Corps." He finished, before taking a step into the kitchens to get some tea and snacks for himself and Daphne.
"I see..." The Greengrass heiress said. "Thanks." She said then, accepting a cup of tea from him. "So..." She continued, after taking a sip. "What did you want to ask me about?"
"Well, it's been three years since I've so abruptly left the Earth... What has happened to everyone since then?" The green-eyed Potter asked.
"Should I translate that question as 'What has happened to my friends'?" Daphne specified.
"That too, but I wouldn't mind learning about the more global events that took place in these past three years." The young Bureau agent clarified.
"Alright then." The Greengrass heiress said with a nod. "Since I'm not sure when exactly you've departed, I'll ask this first: have you heard about Sirius Black breaking free from the Azkaban prison?" Harry paused to think about it. Back then his magic acting up was by far more important to him, so he wasn't paying much attention to anything other than that. Still, he could fuzzily recall Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge saying something about that when they met in front of the 'Leaky Cauldron'.
"I think I did." He said finally.
"Well, on Halloween, he sneaked into Hogwarts and tried to force his way into the Gryffindor common room. When the Fat Lady denied him entry, he cut her portrait up, before retreating. No one has any idea, why he did that as by then your disappearance was some very old news already. Either way, after that incident, the Ministry decided to post a few dozens of dementors around the school to prevent Black from attacking again. A week later, those abominations were sent back to Azkaban because they tried to suck souls out a pair of Ravenclaw firsties." Daphne narrated.
"That's terrible." The young Potter commented. He didn't really have a good idea what kind of a beast those dementors were, but anything that fed on the souls was automatically marked as the foulest abomination in his mind.
"Either way, no one has seen Black since then. Not that it stopped people from making the stories up. Ronald Weasley claims that he had bravely driven off a beast hound supposedly under Black's command that was trying to eat him whole. No one believes him, though..." After a pause that lasted for a few seconds, The Greengrass heiress continued: "The next major event had happened during the next summer: the Quidditch World Cup finals took place here, on the British soil. And some malefactors decided to give everyone a hump once the match was over. A group pretending to be the Death Eaters juggled some muggles in the air, while randomly firing curses into the campsite. They, however, fled the moment someone shot a very real Dark Mark – the Dark Lord's symbol – into the skies. Officially, the caster was a house elf, but everyone knows that it is one big cover up. No one from the first group was caught either." Harry let out an unintelligible sound, most likely meant to express his thoughts about the uselessness of the aurors.
"Something tells me that it was only the first incident among the many." He said after a few seconds.
"True, but everything in course – you wanted a history lesson, didn't you, Potter?" Upon his nod, the young witch continued: "During the next school year, the revived Triwizard Tournament took place at Hogwarts. And while the three tasks the schools' champions had to conquer were interesting, in my opinion, there were too few of them for an entire school year..."
"And what those tasks were?" The green-eyed investigator asked, curious about the tournament's tasks.
"Well, the first one was stealing a fake egg from a mother-dragon. Preferably without damaging the real eggs or taking any hits. The second one was rescuing a hostage from the bottom of the Black lake, and the third one was a maze choke-full of magical traps and beasts. That maze was also rearranging itself once in a while. And some say that the Yule Ball was an unofficial fourth task. Either way, the ball was fantastic!" Daphne told him.
"Sounds interesting." Harry commented. "I wouldn't have minded going through those myself, but I've been seriously busy at that time, especially around that Christmas." A small pause later, he asked: "I take it, not everything went smoothly with this tournament?"
"Actually, no, the tournament went without a hitch." The Greengrass heiress replied. "But a few days after the Yule Ball, there was an attempt to assassinate Dumbledore by one of the Dark Lord's lieutenants. The attack, however, failed, and the headmaster is still with us." Here she made a pause to take a big sip of tea, before continuing recounting the events. "...And it appears that around the same time, the Dark Lord had somehow managed to bring himself back form the dead."
"Is something like that even possible?" Harry wondered out aloud. Bringing someone not quite dead back to life was one thing, and it was done once in a while; but a complete resurrection was stated to be outright impossible within either Mid-Childan or Belkan magic systems... Then, suddenly, it occurred to him that Daphne might actually be a supporter of the Dark Lord Voldemort. "And... What is your stance on the matter?" He asked carefully.
"The Greengrass family, myself included, of course, is a neutral family. And so, while we live almost entirely on the magical side of the world, we don't really have any problems with muggles or muggleborns. Merlin, I was returning home from shopping in a muggle village when that drone thingy abducted me!" The dark-haired witch replied. "For us, the life was better when the Dark Lord was dead, as we now have to thread around carefully, lest we get branded as blood-traitors by the Dark Lord and put up for slaughter."
"So, you won't sell me out to him, will you?" He asked then.
"No, I have no intentions of doing that." Daphne confirmed. "And because I owe you a debt for saving me earlier today, Magic would make it impossible for me to do that, even if I wanted to, until this debt is cleared or paid off."
"I see..." The young Potter breathed out. There was a small pause, before he added: "I hope you won't be terribly offended if I don't clear this debt just yet? While the chances of me returning to this world are actually rather slim, it would be nice to have someone I can rely on there in case that does happen."
"It looks like this Bureau made you think more like a Slytherin..." The Greengrass heiress commented. "I might just forgive you for not setting me free from the shackles of the debt."
"Of course, your highness." Harry replied with a mock bow. Then he continued more seriously: "Now, shall we continue our small history lesson?"
"Alright." Daphne said. "Where were we? Ah, yes, the revival of the Dark Lord... It is not known for sure when that actually happened, and he didn't come out into the open until this last Christmas, when he and his followers launched an attack on the Diagon Alley. The aurors, however, arrived quickly and, thanks to the advanced training they had undergone on Dumbledore's proposition, were able to drive them back before the too many had been severely wounded or killed... And ever since then, I doubt there was a week without the Death Eaters making an attack something or a clash between them and the aurors occurring. Despite that, there were only so many known causalities in this conflict so far."
"That is still terrible." Harry said, receiving a nod of agreement from the Greengrass heiress. This was followed by a long and uncomfortable period silence. "And what had happened to my friends in these three years? Are they alright?" The young Potter asked finally.
"I don't know much, but there are a few things that I can tell you." The dark-haired witch replied. "After you answer a question of my own." Information did have a price, after all.
"And what do you want me to tell you?" Harry asked. Then he glanced at the clock. "Also, as comfortable as we're here, let's get moving, your parents must be beside themselves with worry. We can talk while we're walking there."
"Okay." Daphne replied. "Well, that thing you're using to cast magic, a device, what's it? It seems to be so different from wands I'm used to. And, also, you mentioned being involved in something that took place on Christmas two years ago. Was it something interesting?" The green-eyed special investigator let out a hum.
"You can say that. But 'terrifying' might be a more appropriate word, though. Without going into the details, I was sent on a mission that was clearly well beyond my level back then. Even as I am right now, I'm not sure I'd have managed to make it though without divine protection or something like that." There was a pause before he continued. "As for the devices... They are actually a support tool for casting – extremely useful, but not required. Our magic requires a lot of calculations to construct spell matrices, and the devices, being powerful magitek computers, are very good at crunching numbers. Devices also manage the flow of magical energy during the spell casting."
"So, you can use your magic even wandless?" Daphne asked then. "I mean,.. Without a device." She hastily corrected herself.
"Well, I indeed can cast my spells without any assistance from my device, but the more complex ones will take too much time to set up to be truly useful, if I have to do all of the calculations in my mind." Harry confirmed. "On the other side, if a device is supplied with necessary power, it will be able to 'cast' the spells pre-programmed into it. This is how all of the systems aboard this very ship work, for example." He added then.
"I see..." Daphne said. "And can I have a look at the math behind your spells? I might not be a spell-crafted, but I did ace Arithmancy OWLs, so I know some basic things about how my magic works. It would interesting to make comparison." With a shrug, he summoned a holographic display with a quite a few complex formulas on it, before making it float in front of the dark-haired girl.
"This is a rather simple spell that is essentially a magical equivalent of a flashbang grenade. In other words, when used, it creates a powerful flash of light. Pretty useful against living opponents, but it has very negligible effect on automatons like gadget drones." He said.
"...It seems that our magics do work quite differently." Daphne said after a long pause. Well, that indeed was the case, but beyond that, she'd never confide in not understanding all of the formulas she was seeing. Especially since, based on its description, the spell was a relatively simple one. With another shrug, the young Potter dismissed the display.
"Alright." He said as the two of them stepped into the transportation chamber. "Let's jump back to the Earth and finally ease your parents' worries." Upon the pretty witch's nod, he called his magic forth, preparing the transportation spell. "Dimensional Transfer!" And in a flash of light they disappeared from aboard of "Leto", reappearing on the outskirts of the Capernwray village a moment later.
"Are you going to escort me all the way back to my home?" Daphne asked.
"Yes." Harry replied with a nod. "It'd be better if I'll be the one to explain this whole mess to your parents. They are more likely to take my words at the face value, because I will be acting in my official capacity of an investigator." He said, nodding towards the insignia on his uniform. While definitely not something used by either mundane or magical people of Great Britain, they still looked damn impressive. "Plus." He added then. "You still owe me the stories of what had happened to my friends in the last three years."
"True." Daphne agreed, as she began leading him towards the manor owned by the Greengrass family. "Alright then. First of all, I shall warn you that I don't know much about their lives – they aren't even my acquaintances, so I had no reasons to keep tabs on them." The green-eyed special investigator nodded, prompting her to continue: "Well then... I don't know, whether you'll be surprised to hear that, but Granger and Weasley couldn't maintain their friendship without you. In fact, their break up happened not even two weeks into the school year, the third one, I mean. It was quite messy too, based on the rumors that had reached our dungeon." There was a pause, before Daphne added: "And, for whatever reason, Granger seemed to be angry with you too."
"Uh... Well..." Harry began his 'confession'. "Let's say, I didn't leave her a proper parting gift... I had nothing appropriate on my hands, and a thought of buying something hadn't crossed my mind. In my, admittedly weak, defense, I wasn't really thinking straight back then: my old life had been shattered and the new one was still very very hazy... When I realized what I've done, it was just too late to try and fix anything..." Daphne huffed.
"So, you did offend her after all." She continued. "Well, regardless, following that breakup, Granger's relationship with her classmates too began deteriorating. That is not to say that Weasley was doing much better. Just because you've left your broomstick with him, he began thinking himself to be an important man he was not. And it started getting on people's nerves after a while." A short pause later, the Greengrass heiress continued: "Either way, Wealsey's ridiculous stories about fending demonic hounds aside, nothing else really interesting had happened during the third year."
"I take it, that changed come the next year?" The young Potter asked.
"Of course, it was the year when the Triwizard Tournament was taking place at our school. Something was bound to happen sooner or later." The dark-haired witch responded. Her companion let out a hum, 'telling' her to continue: "Well, like many, Weasley tried to enter himself into the tournament, even if our headmaster placed a line that only those of age could cross around the ...registration point. He failed, of course, and the fallout of his attempt was quite interesting, though it did nothing to increase Weasley's popularity."
"By the way, you've never told me, which three schools were a part of the Triwizard tournament, and who represented them." Harry said. "Also, who won?"
"Oh, right. Sorry." Daphne replied almost instantly. "The three schools participating in the tournament were Durmstrang Institute, represented by an international quidditch star Victor Krum; Beauxbaton academy, whose champion was a part veela girl named Fleur Delacour; and, of course, Hogwarts. Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff was representing us. He also managed to win the tournament, though Krum came very close to beating him... Either way, we're talking about what had happened to your friends now." Here she made a small pause, before continuing: "No major events that I know of had happened to them until the Yuletide. I'm not sure how that had happened, but Granger became Krum's date for the ball. And, let's say, some of the reactions to that were quite extreme. Weasley had also distinguished himself there, and not just by being one of the few stags."
"Mhm..." Harry hummed, recalling his redheaded friend's tendency to insert his foot into his mouth at the worst possible moments.
"At the end of the night, he confronted Granger and openly yelled at her, calling her a traitor and quite a few other words I do not wish to repeat. It earned him two whole months of detentions from professor McGonagall and he almost ended up in a duel against the Durmstrang champion, who wanted to defend his date's honor. As for Granger herself..." Making a small pause, the Greengrass heiress continued: "She ran away crying that night, and she wasn't quite the same ever since then."
"Oh my..." Harry said with a sigh. No, he knew that Ron and Hermione didn't really mesh together well, but this... "They never made up, did they?" He asked even if he could easily guess the answer.
"No." Daphne replied, shaking her head. "And it got even worse after the second task, where Granger played a 'hostage' Krum needed to rescue, and the Durmstrang champion almost won the task... Within a week of that incident, Granger left the castle as she transferred out of Hogwarts. Only the professors know, which school she had joined, but they are holding their tongues."
Had he really been friends with someone like that? Harry wondered to himself. Well, Ronald had always seen the world in black and white, but this sounded almost too extreme even for him, but... Now that he thought about it a little, the youngest male Weasley had been a jerk towards Hermione before the troll incident. He wasn't all to her nice afterwards too, so it was possible that Daphne wasn't lying here. Oh damn it,..
"At least tell me that he got his bitters." The green-eyed investigator asked.
"McGonagall was furious with him, and so were his parent, when they learned what he had done. I think his mother berating him was heard all around the castle that day. Oh, and Krum actually got the duel he itched for since the Yule ball." Daphne didn't even see the need to elaborate, who won. Then again, what were the chances of an average and unmotivated fourth year winning against someone who was more powerful, more knowledgeable and more experienced then him?
Having heard that Ronald had been less than a gentleman in the past, Harry wasn't even sure he wanted to know what had happened to him during the fifth year. Meanwhile, since Hermione wasn't attending Hogwarts anymore, the Daphne wasn't likely to know how the bushy-haired girl was doing, so asking about that would likely be useless and just a waste of time...
"And what about the Gryffindor Flying Vixens? Or Neville?" The collective name Angelina, Alicia and Katie of the house's quidditch team had been branded with.
"Well,.." The Greengrass heiress began. "Neither the three Gryffindor chasers, nor Longbottom are of the kind that really attracts trouble or extreme luck to themselves. So, there was nothing about them on the rumor mill beyond the guesses about their love life."
"Then, they are doing well." Harry concluded.
"Probably." Daphne agreed as the two of them fell into silence. The young Potter was reflecting on what he had learned about happenings that had taken place on his home world in the past three years. Meanwhile, the pretty witch next to him was both looking forward to reuniting with her parents and her little sister – even if it was just half a day since she had seen them last, so many things had happened that it felt like they had been apart for days – while also hoping that the meeting between Potter and her father would go smoothly. Merlin knows, sometimes the man's overprotectiveness over her and Astoria did more bad that good... Oh well, at least it didn't look like she'd have to worry about that for long – she could already see the edge of the Greengrass properties...
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A single finger covered by light-blue latex-like material breached the surface of a concrete wall almost as it if was some sort of a thick liquid instead. Then, a miniature camera of all things appeared on that finger, surveying the room. Once it was confirmed that the room was clear, the owner of the finger decided to make her entrance and stepped through the wall, like it wasn't a solid substance.
This teal-haired teal-eyed girl in a two-colored blue latex suit with silvery metal shoulder-pads looked around once again, making sure that the coast was indeed clear. Then she stuck her hand back through the wall, before pulling her sister – a much taller and more masculine violet-haired yellow-eyed young woman in a similar suit – into the room as well.
"Alright, Sein." The older of the two girls said. "You go look for the girl, I'll take care of whoever happens to be in there." Her younger, teal-haired, sister nodded.
"Roger that, Tre." She replied, probably a bit too enthusiastically and loud. Her voice, after all, alerted the owner of the apartment she and her sister had just infiltrated about their presence.
"Who's there?" A male voice came from another room. Then, there was a sound of someone getting of a sofa and quietly walking towards them... Tre sent a glare at Sein.
"Idiot." She mumbled, causing her teal-haired sister to smile sheepishly... Sighing at the younger girl's childish antics that have just made their mission more difficult, she summoned a faintly-glowing three-feet-long backwards-pointing energy blade from her left wrist. Then, picking a good moment, Tre jumped through the door and unleashed her magical blade upon the apartment's owner, beheading him before he could even react.
Tre then immediately switched to a defensive stance, ready to act, should there be more people around, but it turned out to be unnecessary: there were no more adults to oppose her and Sein. Thus, the two of them began looking for the child they were supposed to collect. And since the apartment they had invaded wasn't that big, before long the two of them were standing in front of little Lutecia's crib, looking at the little lavender-haired girl, who was soundly asleep, hugging a small cute cat-like plush toy to herself with her small and still chubby hands.
"She's so cute!" Sein observed, thankfully remembering to keep her voice down this time.
"Whatever." Tre replied, apparently completely unaffected by the charm little Lutecia was seemingly projecting at anyone looking at her. "Just collect her and let's get out. If we waste too much time, the Bureau might detect us." Nodding, her teal-haired sister gently picked the little girl out of her crib. "Are you taking that thing along too?" Tre asked then, nodding towards the plush their 'target' was still hugging to herself in her sleep.
"Why not?" Sein asked in whisper. "It's not like a toy can compromise us, right? And she will definitely need something to comfort her, what's with being in a new place and with her mother almost dead." The violet-haired young woman let a sigh, before shaking her head, apparently not really comprehending her younger sister's more compassionate nature.
"Fine, let's get out of here." She said. Nodding, Sein placed her hand on her shoulder and they walked out of the apartment through its wall. Their mission in Cranagan was accomplished.
That's all folks!
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