Chapter 39 – Which Top Priority Should Be Our Top Priority
Hermione suggested that perhaps she should Apparate us back to the ICW. Mr. Tsieh strenuously objected "You think you can follow back the path you took here. That is a very difficult thing to do. You don't know where you are standing. You are not used to the weak magic of China. You will kill all of us. I know my landing was bumpy, but I did have to account for the uneven surface of this cavern. I probably should have warned you of a rough landing, but a sprained ankle is far better than a splinched foot. I promise a smoother return trip."
Mr. Tsieh kept that promise. I was surprised by how many people greeted us. Yael was back, but Harry was present, as were Ron, Viktor, Cho, Cotto, McGonagall, King Gobbledygook, Mrs. Toms, Little Ba'al, and Scathach. Harry hugged me, taking the opportunity to whisper in my ear: "I fear the ICW is taking advantage of us and especially of you and Hermione. What has the ICW ever done for us? This is all moving way too
fast. Everyone has a top priority something for you and the Questers to deal with. We must decide which top priority really is OUR top priority."
"We seem to be over-run by Britain," Secretary Afshar complained. "It is not appropriate."
"And the ICW seems to be intent upon bullying Britain," Harry spat back. "You went behind our backs to commit us to projects with other communities, not all even magical communities. You do that after we are subjected to a sham ICW investigation and suggestions that we be censured for working with our own nonmagical government.
'I will not allow you, or Mr. Tsieh, or the nonmagical government of Israel to dictate to my wife, the Mother of the Future, or to threaten her or to put her in danger. I will not countenance the sharing of our defence secrets, unless I know they will be safeguarded and used only for good. They are our secrets and therefore they are our responsibility. You cannot just demand that they be shared. Out of one side of his mouth, Mr. Tsieh demands that my wife, or her Muse, walk to her death to ensure the death of Vili, then out of the other side, he demands that she share her secrets with him and build a modern circle at a location of his choosing. A location which isn't even known to us. A nonmagical government makes the same demand, then when she and Hermione move to assist them, lure her to a location which prevents her from Apparating away from danger. I can partly excuse those actions - as nonmagical, they don't realise what a fearsome threat that is to us. That is what I came to say.
"We will return home. We will discuss all of this among ourselves. The nonmagical government of China is no friend of Britain. Why should we expose our most vital secrets for them to steal? It is not the legitimate job of the ICW Secretary to pressure us to do so. I understand that magical strength is not sufficiently strong for all the magical people throughout Israel. The simplest approach seems to me to be turning up the power of Little Ba'al's circle. He has told me that he is willing to do that. We can make it perfectly safe to run that circle at twice its current strength and allow it to operate with minimal downtime. We don't need to divert the Questers from more important tasks to accomplish that. Our worst fear is that magical people may be turned into weapons in battles between nonmagical communities. The request for a modern circle in Jerusalem carries high risk of crossing over that line. That is extremely dangerous to all magical peoples."
"I agree," Viktor supported Harry. "I also am in no hurry to share my community's secrets with those who have never shared secrets with us."
"I did not pressure Ginny or the British Wizarding community, I merely tried to facilitate cooperation between magical communities. We are safest when we work together," Secretary Afshar seemed totally convinced of the rightness of his position. "I will summon the Chairman. Please, at least stay until he has a chance to speak to you. Really, it is only natural that the larger and stronger Wizarding communities assist the smaller ones. The small communities lack the means to help the larger communities."
"If I may," Danny Yakom interjected, "there are security reasons why the magical circle is better located in Israel than in Jordan. Our magical community is larger, and we are better able to help them protect the circle from attack. Just as Little Ba'al's circle can be operated to provide magic to my nation, the reverse is true. A circle in Jerusalem will provide powerful magic to magical people in both nations. Little Ba'al's circle was attacked once. It would have been captured, if you had not come to the rescue. You haven't fought for nonmagical Britain yet. I suggest that if Britain were threatened you might well decide to do so. I suggest that you should do so. Your community should have joined Britain in its fight against fascism. We nurture and protect our magical community and in return they help to defend the nation. This makes everyone safer and makes one unified community of what could divide into two. Please think about this."
McGonagall haughtily replied "I'll have you know that I personally know of a half dozen Wizards and Witches who fought for Britain in the War Against Fascism. Two of them died. I'm not sure if the fighters used magic in the fight, but I do know of a Witch who used magic to nurse back to health several soldiers who otherwise would have died. I will add that she likely wouldn't have fared well if what she did was discovered."
"Forgive me, that does make me feel better about your community. But why don't you teach this to your students. I can tell by Ginny's reaction that she did not know this."
"I have been trying to revise our curriculum, but I think what we need to focus on is this: with all of these demands upon Ginny and her Quest, which demands are most urgent, what must we do first, and how can the Ministry help?"
"I think the Vanir path to our world is the most urgent danger. Danny captured one of the agents from the Miomor faction, but the more dangerous agent remains free, likely very close to this location. He must be captured, and his partner must not be allowed to escape. We Questers need to explore the ribbon-between-worlds as our next step." I pulled the signal galleon from my pocket and activated it." We will leave tomorrow. I must talk to Odin and Yggdrasil before we depart. The Ministry and the ICW can help to catch the other Vanir invader. and generally, strengthen our defences. Building circles will have to wait."
I reached Odin through Yggdrasil, telling him all which had happened and my conclusion that we must investigate the ribbon-between-worlds and find all its points of embarkation and debarkation on both Vanaheimer and Earth. I told him that I felt we were beyond Questing on this one and needed to bring a larger force. He agreed to meet us at our camp on Asgard and to lead us into battle if necessary. He agreed with me that exploration and negotiation was preferable to a battle but thought that approach unlikely to succeed. "At the least, I think you will need to blockade the ribbon at Vanaheimer. We will ask Yggdrasil if it is possible to destroy that section of the ribbon or to make it impossible to enter from Vanaheimer.
Danny told me "I'd like Yael to travel with you. The Vanir invaded our country. I don't want that to happen again. Other magical Israelis will help us find the second invader.'
Hermione told Yael to turn off her cellphone and put the sim card in her pocket. After Yael had done so, we travelled back home, taking her with us. It's not that I distrusted Yael, just that she was a very new acquaintance who had yet to enter the 'proven friend' category. I chose to Apparate us to the floor of the Hogwarts pyramid, caring less about what she would see there than about providing her the ability to Apparate to another spot in Britain, where I felt safe. Just moments after we arrive, Yael let out a squeal of delight.
"Magic is so strong here! I feel like a true Witch. Since you brought me here, I assume you are willing to show me your purple diamond circle and Black Stone."
She was standing here, so I guess that must be true. I walked Yael over to the purple-diamond circle. "It looks so simple and small, but I can just feel the power washing through me," she enthused.
Next stop was a visit to the Black Stone. I told both Yael and the Black Stone that she could communicate with Hermione or me through the Stone. I asked her whether she had family back home that she needed to stay in contact with.
"The only other magical member of my family is my younger brother, Meir. He is seventeen."
Telling her that I wasn't sure how well this would work; I told the Stone that she and Meir could message back and forth to each other. I told her about leaving a message with the Stone for later delivery. I told her to sit on her floor, with her back against the Black Stone and try to communicate with it by thought. I wanted to say hello to the crew guarding the pyramid and to have a quick word with Harry, Ron, and Hermione out of Yael's hearing. I told them that if Yael was to travel with us to Asgard and Vanaheimer, that I had a responsibility to keep her as safe as possible. That meant she would need a better wand than her community had given her. That meant she had to make a trip to Ollivander's. Hermione quickly agreed. Harry and Ron took some persuasion, but ultimately agreed with me that the ethics of the situation demanded a visit to Ollivander's as well as a tiny purple diamond in the handle of her new wand. I was very surprised that my husband consulted with McGonagall, before giving me his final approval. I told Harry that I needed to give Yael about a half hour in the charging oval, before we went wand shopping. I had learned from experience that if my Questers used the charging ovalss to achieve peak condition, that a half hour charge best approximated their average state. That was enough to make a difference in choosing the most appropriate wand. Harry agreed to this as well and wrote out a note for me saying that Yael was a member of a friendly magical community, who had demonstrated magical ability in his presence and that he blessed providing her with a wand as being in the best interest of our community.
Barb, I, and a charged-up Yael Apparated to The Leaky Cauldron. I was chatting with her as Barb inconspicuously did the trick to open the entrance into Diagon Alley. Seamus took quite a few tries before finding a wand match. He added a little bloodless sand and a purple diamond fragment to the wand handle. Yael did not see him do this.
I saw no harm in giving Yael a quick tour of Diagon Alley and a half dozen of its shops, including a visit to Gringotts. I wanted her to meet a Goblin and a dragon. We ran into Hermione as we were leaving, so we all ended the trip with a refreshment break in the shop of Susan Bones' mother. Over a big plate of chocolate chip cookies with walnuts and tall mugs of Mrs. Bones' signature rich cocoa, Yael explained how new and strange everything was to her.
"We don't have a separate place for magical people. We are totally integrated into our nation; except we don't do anything magical in front of anyone not in on our secret. We have an artisan who makes wands in his home. It's just an ordinary house with a bench and hidden supply cabinet in his garage. We have a Witch who makes and sells several healing potions, also from her house. There is a small Wizarding school of sorts, but it only meets two nights a week and students only attend for four years. As you may guess, it doesn't teach many spells..."
"That may be a problem," Hermione jumped in. "Exactly what spells can you perform. We may have to instruct you before you can travel with us, and we just have hours to do this."
"I can produce light from my wand. I can do a stunning spell - it has the same effect as yours, but only persists for about forty minutes, that's why everyone was so worried that you had killed Ari and the soldiers. I know a spell to push an opponent back and another to try to remove a weapon from his hands. I know a spell to block the pain of injuries. I also know a spell to calm an angry dog or other animal - this spell can also cause an enemy or guard to see me as not a threat and not worth stopping for investigation. That's it."
That wasn't much, but with the weak strength of magic in her land, it was unreasonable to expect more. She was a trained intelligence agent and had been a soldier, who knew how to use the standard personal weaponry of a modern nonmagical soldier. I would have to treat her as basically another Captain Davies. Like Captain Davies, I realised that part of her job was to spy on us, as well as upon the other worlds we would visit. I was alright with that. As we finished our snack, Yael told us more about her community.
"We don't have any nonhuman magical people. We don't have dragons or other magical beasts. We have almost no magical government, just two Wizards and a Witch who meet one evening a month unless there is an emergency in the community. We are signed onto the ISS, so these three would act if a member of our community violated or was about to violate the ISS. Some of us, such as me, who hold positions in the national government or the services are liaisons to approved government contacts who know of our existence, Mr. Tsieh's complaint against you was unfounded. I believe almost every magical community has dealings with at least a handful of contacts in their national government. These contacts are let in on a lot of secrets."
"I'd like to contact my boss, before we return to your pyramid. I want to learn how the hunt for the other invader progresses" Yael proposed. "I have to wait two hours until the airplane I would have travelled on to get here disgorges its passengers and they have a chance to catch a train into London. We have a standard protocol. A fellow agent has flown as me. We look very similar. She can alter her appearance to be almost me. She will pass through Paddington Station in just over two hours, if everything is on schedule. I will alter my appearance. If you two are coming with me, you should do the same. The British government has cameras everywhere and other nations' spies frequently tap into that network."
"Ginny and Barb can go with you. I'm going to take this time measurer to my uncle professor. It needs elaborate equipment to decode its measurement. I also hope to return with an answer to the measured age of the scrolls we removed from that cavern. We'll meet back at the pyramid. If you have time, you should practice magic with Yael and teach her a new spell."
If we had a place to practice, we could do it now. I was quite sure that Harry didn't want me to bring Yael to the Ministry. My truth-teller talent told me that I could trust her and Danny, but Harry wasn't there yet. We went back to George's shop. First, we tested how much improvement the new wand made to the strength of the spells she already knew. It made a surprising amount of difference. Then, I had to decide what other spells were most important for her to learn. I began with 'Shield' and 'Protego!'. The most important spell for her to learn, if I didn't want to put her life at risk, was Apparation. That is also a very difficult bit of magic. I didn't know if it was not taught until late in seventh year, because physical and mental maturation was needed, or because learning all the spells and charms leading up to it prepared your mind, or that it was just so dangerous that Hogwarts didn't want to risk the death or dismemberment of very young students. I was unwilling to tempt fate. We had made quite good progress on 'Protego!' by the time we needed to alter our appearances and travel to Paddington. Yael was carrying a blonde wig, which quickly went over her own auburn hair. George was now selling a line of Tonks Wigs. I took a short, silvery-grey wig, with lavender colouring on half the length. I don't wear make-up but took a stick of black from George. Yael adopted the same colour. She put what Hermione had told me were contact lenses into her eyes, turning them green. She also pulled a bright red blouse and long black skirt out of her bag and changed into them. George was a little astonished by this subterfuge, asking both of us "wouldn't it be simpler to just use the Juice?" I saw that Barb had chosen that approach.
Two underground trains got us to Paddington. We walked right through the station, stopping at the first eatery we encountered. Yael bought us each an espresso and pastry whilst we grabbed an outdoor table. We waited twenty minutes until a young woman, who obviously was her double - even wearing the exact clothes Yael had worn to Britain - walked past us. I saw that Yael was looking down and reassembling her cellphone. I also noticed that two men appeared to be following the woman. I was certain, because she made a few quick stops in front of a restaurant and a hotel, forcing her shadows to also halt. She then picked up her pace and vanished around the next corner. As soon as the men were gone, Yael dialed her cellphone. I couldn't understand what she said, but she promptly told me: "the other invader has been caught. We must pick up Hermione and your husband and return to ICW headquarters. My boss wants you to hear what the prisoner has to say."
I messaged Harry and Cissy and then Apparated us back to the pyramid. I told Harry that life would be easier if he had a permanent representative at the ICW and that I would look wholly ridiculous when next he saw me.
Cissy didn't know whether she wanted to accuse me of not 'taking her with' on our latest adventure or being delighted to participate in another truth-telling adventure. She quickly chose to be happy. Harry and Ron had three aurors with them. We all Apparated to the ICW.