Chapter 26.

Hunting Hazel.

I haft to admire the kids; they weren't going to go down without a fight. Fred and George, along with Harry and Ginny, weren't taking 'No' for an answer. They'd kept coming up with a multitude of schemes they figured would get around Hazel's Dampener—that I, sadly, would shoot down from the experience of seeing other's try those very same things.

But they weren't deterred. They were damn well going to solve this locked box puzzle with their abilities—even as I directed them to do specific tasks.

Fred and George hopped on the Computer. It has enough memory and a powerful enough processor to run several screens simultaneously, so while watching the WizNet Posts for anything concerning Hazel and the Dampener they were also plying through the Homes for Sale ads for all of Fresno County—which is what Harry and Ginny were doing as well, but pulling that information out of all the newspapers received since their arrival.

I saved such for recycling; it gives me a little extra coin. I also cut out articles of interest. Such things are worth more than their weight in gold. Plus, Hazel had plenty of time to set up a really big area, possibly the entire county form mountain range to mountain range, to be effected by the Dampener—or at least I figure.

If not, then we can work downward. But her choice of layout was well known; a Pentacle in a double circle, requiring thirty Anchor-points to properly govern the stability of the field—regardless of weither it was big or small. With Fredricks, while Barnabus was covering our backs, I plotted out the locations of the numerous parcels on a double sided folding map of Fresno City (on one side) and Fresno County (on the other side)…

"You know, two maps would be better." Fredricks mentioned.

The unfolded map both he and Day hovered over almost took over the entire top of the kitchen table, and flattened out by the means of paper-weights and large stones from the backyard along its edge.

"They need the other one." Day muttered, pointing at Harry and Ginny who were using the Ferrari as a work table. Two bundled stacks of newspapers were freed from their confinement by Harry's pocketknife, before he and Ginny separated out the Home-buyer section from the rest of the newspaper. The latter portions were put on the sportcar's roof as Ginny laid out the desired sections on the hood, one on top of the other.

This bothered Harry.

"Ginny," he whispered to her, "it wont do us any good if we mix them all together like that."

But Ginny just smiled back at him.

"Just something Mum taught me for quickly sorting things." She briskly stated.

A trick? Was all Harry could wonder while watching her neatly arrange the open newspaper sections into a perfectly aligned stack

When all of the sections were in place, he watched as Ginny drew her wand from her skirt and slowly swirled it over the stack while softly chanting; "Genus quod Organize, per haud effingo"

Much to Harry's surprise, the stack began rustling. Pages fluttered quickly, sometimes violently as if being attacked by a gust of wind, but the stack remained on the Ferrari's sloped hood until the motions stopped. But Harry saw to his amazement the printed text on the foremost sheet rapidly rearrange itself like cake batter being blended in a mixing bowl. The little announcements in their separate boxes swirled about, some rising upward from the far left side of the opened page as others vanished downward on the far right while Ginny named off the cities and communities that either surrounded Fresno or were in Fresno County from the second map Day had given them.

Minutes later, the stirring stopped and the pages stopped fluttering.

"Totus!" Ginny finally added with a quick flick of her wand, and twenty sheets folded over on themselves.

Ginny then slipped her wand into her blouse and simply picked the folded sheets up, as a speechless Harry simply watched.

"It's how the Wizarding Families in and around St. Catchpole share recipes." Ginny smiled at him before heading to the kitchen table.

"Oh, right…Of course." Harry gently said before following.

It was almost nightfall when George emerged from the Computer Room, carrying a nearly used up note pad.

"If my Brother and I have figured this right," He said, approaching the kitchen table, "then Hazel's magic may not extend beyond the limits of Fresno itself."

Harry, Ginny, Day, and Fredricks all looked up from the County map at George as he prepared to explain.

"A goodly number of locals posting on WizNet are already doing what you're doing." He began explaining. "What they've found out is that is impossible to Aspirate in most of Fresno, and places called Calwa and South Clovis. But, it's very possible to Aspirate in North Clovis, Malaga, Kerman, Centerville, Madera, and Fowler—even on the north side of Woodward Park, which is just up the street."

Just up the street, about a half-mile. Had it been a half-mile in the other direction, Harry knew they would have been captured.

But a mile more further to the south, they would have been clear.

It was close, so awfully close…

"If Woodward's the northern most edge of the Dampener, "Day began to draw on the map a sweeping curve, "And, we're here…"

Everyone at the table watched as he started drawing out the form of a precise pentacle with its surrounding circles, by linking the lines up to the pin's representing recently sold properties on the map. When finished, the drawing was perfectly proportioned on all its sides. With several of the pins resting on the drawn lines in perfectly aligned positions to one another.

"Right now, she knows were all of the Mages are with in her Field. And is most likely now either identifying them, or eliminating them altogether from the scean. It would explain why we couldn't contact some of them. It's another facet of how Hazel sets her Pentacles up..."

Harry and Ginny simply stared at it in amazement.

"Impressive." Fredricks acknowledged.

"She never did anything half-way." Day commented.

"So now what?" Harry wondered, glancing at Day.

After inhaling, Day did explain, "What we have here is an estimation of where the Anchorages of Hazel's Dampener are located, not only where the lines come together at a point but where they cross and bisect the outer circles at a Forty-five degree angle line drawn outward from the corners of the Pentagon formed in the symbol's center. The outer circle is additionally supported by more Anchors located in the same fashion, and with those set directly in line with the points of the star they enclose."

"So everything with-in the outer circle is contained by the Dampener?" Ginny asked, pointing at the map.

Day nodded. "In varying degrees of containment, lighter to stronger form the edge towards the center. But anyone at the outer edge of the symbol, like us, is still libel to be snared if attempting to leave the area physically—or tagged and followed if they try leaving magically. It depends on what her moods are at the moment."

That, Day added with an intense frown.

"And like a Spider sitting in its web, she would be in its center." Fredricks reasoned, readying his cellphone for use.

"If she's there, that is." Day murmured.

Fredricks paused, wondering.

Harry and Ginny just glanced at each other. And Ginny was becoming irritated.

"Would you like to tell us everything in one fell swoop, please?" She directly said to Day. "I can only take so much of all this shifting around you tends to do."

Day became exasperated; he finally had enough, as far as Harry could see of Ginny's behavior, in that one clear moment before his self-control took over in the presence of Agent Fredricks—who was ready to step in if Day lost his temper.

"The reason I say what I say about Hazel, "Day slowly began with duress, "is because she learned long ago that the best way to really screw up your enemies is by behaving in ways they won't expect—which is exactly what I've been trying to teach you the whole time you've been here."

After a few moments of composing himself under Ginny's critical eyes, Day continued; "The beauty of her designs, learned at numerous feet, knees, and a few eager laps, is that she needn't be anywhere in or near them to know what's going on with in them. For all intensive purposes, she could be right now sunning her butt on a private beach in Pango-Pango, or skiing off the ice slopes of Mount Everest, or maybe she's taking in the sights of Paris as a tourist—I DON'T KNOW!

"But." He quietly added after the eruption, "cross any of the lines leaving her web and—"He suddenly, loudly, snapped his fingers that made even Ginny jump with surprise, "she'll know."

"What we haft to do then is to find the Anchor's for the Dampener and destroy them. Starting with the nearest one first.

"Hazel's very fond of the Pentacle within the double circle, and uses it as her magical foci." Day continued. "But for smaller versions, she'll put protective inscriptions around the Dampener's Anchors, usually in the empty space between the circles utilizing Native American Shamanistic symbols as the defense against intrusion.

"Most likely they're Sleep charm, but I wouldn't rule out a Snare as well, which only Hazel knows how to dispel, wrapped around a Notifyer that'll tell her someone tried disturbing her 'work'. She won't kill the person who tries, not without having some 'fun' with them first"

"So how can we defeat it?" Harry asked. They didn't cover such things in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. In fact, he'd never herd of other such forms of Magic before coming to America. Hermione would have possibly known, considering how many books in the Hogwarts Library she read already. But her injuries would have kept her from being useful.

This left him and Ginny too, from her reaction, at a serious loss as to what to do.

"How well do you know Scott Joplin?" Day asked him.

Harry paused. The name was familiar…Something to do with a piano…

And Fredricks stepped in; "The Ragtime Composer?"

It still didn't resonate with Harry. But he did recall a movie by the same name, shown on television a long time ago. It depicted several black men blowing up vintage firehouses for a reason he couldn't recall.

Ginny was looking at him, hoping for some clue to emerge from him to what the Americans were talking about.

Day nodded smilingly. "She's utterly nuts about Ragtime music, and has worn out so many copied of The Sting over the years she can quote every piece of dialog in the movie—backwards and forwards."

Harry suddenly blinked, Yes!

It came to him in a flash; it was a movie seen a few times on night-time television, sometimes at old Miss' Figg's house but a few times at the Dursley's when they were away for the evening. Swindlers working to bring down a Gangster, that's where the piano tune was coming from.

"The American Movie!" Harry blurted out before realizing it.

This brought all discussions at the table to a halt, and Ginny blinking at him with a deep look of dismay on her face.

"Yes." Day gently explained. "The Sting is an American Movie, but please don't try what they did in it. It's a created reality, geared towards entertaining people. What they did wouldn't work in real life anyway.

And as Harry felt gradually embarrassed, Day continued with his explanation; "What I'm talking about is that she sets up these defensives with the shamanistic symbols arranged like musical notes to be played on a Piano, by how they are sounded out when spoken."

"A Piano?" Fredricks wondered.

Ginny didn't appear very amused by that. "Are we going to be carrying one around with us?"

As much as he liked Ginny, Harry was on the verge of telling her to stop it. Her rude attitude towards Day was going way too far.

But Day stepped in quickly, if not irritatedly…

"We're going to be using an Electric Piano. Because it's easier to—"

Then he stopped, looking as if he'd realized something utterly startling, "Maybe she's finally overcame her reluctance towards using the WizNet."

George went white.

"But we can work it to our advantage." Day quickly said to him. "Have either you or your brother revealed who you are and where you're at?"

George shook his head, "We've been careful, as you said to be"

Day nodded, relieved by what he herd.

"Then this is what you do." Day began telling George.

I wanted him and his brother to fish around on the WizNet.

Risky, well yes. But it took care of two things; it told us who was still out there, and most importantly who was most likely an agent of Hazel, if any existed. Determining that would involve guessing from what the poster wrote in their responses, or, specifically, how they wrote it. The psychology is very complex, but it involves searching out certain key words or phrases that are in their own way like unconscious physical actions and character identifiers.

Hazel prefers her 'Boy-Toy Companions' to be darkly handsome in the romantic sort of way with a fair amount of intelligence and a goodly dose of arrogant ego with a penchant for viciousness. Probably to make them think she was in their control, because I can't see anyone smarter being one of her Gigolos and still be under her control. How she can control those boy-toys of hers' I'll never guess in millions of years. But if she's using the WizNet to keep tabs on the locals, it would be through them--because for some odd reason she doesn't like trolling on it.

Again, I'll never guess…

Maybe I'll just wait for the Memoir to come out.

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