Chapter 16: Identities and Preparations

Author's Note: As per request this is kind of an Elanus chapter. I will develop his character more soon, or perhaps in another story. He is the head of the Department of Mysteries, and he's very good as his job.  I did kind of rip of the "Tracker" idea from "Total Recall" but I couldn't figure anything else out that wouldn't be too obvious.

The calendars changed to February and snow covered everything in a sheet of white. Samuel and Professor Longfellow stood observing their duelling class. One of the students who was well known for using fire and lightning bolts was duelling another student who's preferred technique was conjuring small animals and other animate objects to fight for him. The bolt flinger waved his wand at the conjurer and a small bolt of lighting arced from his wand. Before the conjurer could react the bolt connected with him and gave him a nasty shock. He fell over and Samuel rushed to pull him to his feet.

"Alright, what did Robert here do wrong?" Longfellow asked.

"He didn't use a counter spell fast enough." One of the students answered.

"Right." Longfellow said.

"Excuse me." Samuel said, dusting Robert off. "How do you counter lightning like that it's too fast."

"Good point. Anyone?" Longfellow asked the students.

"You don't." Hermione said. "You prevent it."

"How do you know it'll be used?" Samuel asked.

"There's really not a way." One of the other students answered.

"How about an insulation spell?" Samuel asked Longfellow.

"That might work." Longfellow replied. "What do you propose?"

Samuel whispered something into Robert's ear. The young wizard looked at Samuel in disbelieve and then shrugged. Robert waved his wand and then saluted the other student and they began duelling again. The bolt flinger waved his wand at Robert and lightning arced from it. Just before he completed the spell though Robert conjured a small iron rod that attracted the lightning and conducted it harmlessly into the ground then disappeared. Before the bolt flinger could react Robert waved his wand and the bolt flinger's wand flew from his hand.

"What did you do?" asked Longfellow.

"He told me to make a small rod in the ground." Robert replied.

"He basically grounded the electricity. I was going to tell him to make the air really dense around him too." Samuel said. "Might provide him some protection, but who knows where the lightning would arc. It'd also help against fire."

Longfellow nodded. "Keep note of that, we'll try that on a dummy later. We're duelling the fencers next week, so prepare yourself. You're all dismissed."

The students returned to the castle and Longfellow and Samuel began cleaning up. "That was interesting." Longfellow said. "Lightning is hard to get around safely."

"You could probably accomplish the same thing with a small rod in your shoe." Samuel said.

"How do you think they'll fare against the fencers? I've seen them, they're good." Longfellow asked.

"Well, having spells cast at you is one thing, but having someone try to skewer you while you're casting a spell is another. I think they have a shot though. Maria's asked Elanus and I to help her with something that'll give 'em a bit more of an edge over the duellers." Samuel said.

"What's that?" asked Longfellow.

"Well, I really can't tell you. I can tell you this though, it's a revolutionary idea in magic use from what Elanus is saying." Samuel said. "He's thinking about incorporating something similar at his Department."

"I hope it's not some invincibility charm or something." Longfellow said. "He's really quite brilliant with that sort of thing."

"Nothing like that." Samuel said. "I'm on my way to help him with it right now actually."

Longfellow nodded. "I won't keep you. See you tomorrow."

Samuel waved to Professor Longfellow and ran off. He found Elanus waiting in his office with Filch. Filch was waving a wand around making a kerchief dance in the air.

"I see those wands are working nicely." Samuel said watching the kerchief.

"Yes!" Filch said. "Dumbledore even told me I could use them to take a first and second year wizard exam."

"I think he's really learning how the spells work too." Elanus commented. "He can use the wands to start the spell, but he's the one that controls what it does."

"How many can you put in one wand?" Samuel asked, sitting in a chair in front of his desk.

"Oh, four or five depending on what it is." Elanus replied. "That one has a levitation spell, and a charms. I also made him one to help with his rounds and obnoxious students."

"Great." Samuel said. "Have you got Maria's stuff ready?"

Filch stood up. "I'd love to stay but I've got to get to my office." Filch said. "I have a large box full of stuff I confiscated from a Ravenclaw. It needs sorted and locked away."

"Have a good one." Samuel said nodding to his friend.

Filch grunted and closed the door behind him as he walked out of the office. Elanus in the mean time had pulled a simple rapier from a closet that occupied part of one wall. Samuel drew it from it's scabbard and examined it carefully.

"Does it work?" asked Samuel.

"Like a dream, I don't know why we never thought of this. We're going to be issuing these to all the Wizard Slayers with any talent for magic at all." Elanus said, taking the rapier from Samuel. He pointed the tip of the blade to a book sitting on top of a cabinet and said 'Leviosa!'. The book started levitating and flew around the room as Elanus pointed the tip of the sword at the door. The book hit the door and fell to the ground.

"Careful." Samuel said as he held his hand out. The book flew into his hand and snapped shut. "This one is for one of my students."

"That the new muggle studies curriculum?" Elanus asked.

"Sure is." Samuel said. "We've sold most of them and the board of governers is highly impressed. Except Lucius Malfoy, he thinks I'm the devil or something because of that little incident with James and Draco."

"Lucius is a hardened Death Eater." Elanus said. "I'd like nothing more then for Arthur Weasley to raid his house again so I can examine the stuff they find. We could lock him up for the rest of his life I imagine."

"Which brings me to another point." Samuel said, chuckling. "How are preparations coming?"

"If you mean with the spies." Elanus said, tapping a small disk on Samuel's desk. "Fine. In fact while you guys are intercepting the owl tomorrow night, I'm going to be watching our little friend."

"Tonight?" asked Samuel.

"I'll be planting Trackers on the ones we have on our list." Elanus said. "Harry was kind enough to let me borrow the Marauder's Map his father made as well. We'll be able to see who's sneaking about."

"What are we doing then?" asked Samuel.

"If all goes well we should be able to take them down inside a week." Elanus said. "Since we figure the strike will come some time next month. What have you got on Harry?"

"Well, someone is obviously trying to cause him bodily harm." Samuel said. "It's only been through

"Harry is a very important young man." Elanus said. "It's not surprising that he's a target."

"Sirius told me that he heard a pop when Harry fell in the lake back in January. I may have told you this before, but it sounds to me like someone magically pushed him in, though Harry said he never felt pushed." Samuel said.

"Some people think Harry is the only one who can defeat Voldemort." Elanus said. "I suspect that's why he's being attacked."

"Yeah, and all the coincidences that have foiled their efforts are amazing." Samuel said. "His guardian angel is working over time."

Elanus nodded. "I'm going to go take a nap, I've got a long night tonight. Getting into the dormitories isn't easy."

"Look in the top drawer of the desk. There's a slip of paper in there with all the passwords to the dormitories." Samuel said. "I updated it this morning, so most of 'em should be right."

"How did you?" asked Elanus.

"The Observers. They're handy." Samuel replied.

Elanus nodded. "Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow." Samuel waved to his cousin as he left. Elanus made his way to the guest quarters. His room was fairly large by Hogwart's standards, and well decorated and furnished. He sat down in the large, plush chair that occupied one corner of the room and took his shoes off. After stripping down to his underclothes and donning a pair of pajamas he flopped down in his bed and went to sleep. It was almost nightfall when he woke up. He carried a bathrobe with him to the guest washroom and after a quick bath he went back into his room. He kneeled and looked under the bed and pulled out a large wooden box and fingered a secret lever. The box opened and inside was a set of black clothing, and an assortment of strange trinkets. He pulled the black pants and shirt on, they fit him snugly and as soon as he buttoned the last button all the seams disappeared. It looked like he was wearing one solid, tight fitting piece of cloth. He pulled out a pair of gloves and they too melded with the suit as soon as he pulled them over his fingers. The last thing was a hood without any openings even for the face. His vision was unhindered though because to him it appeared there was nothing in front of his face, even though he could feel it. He gathered the trinkets from his box and stuck them in a hidden pocket in his suit. The pocket didn't bulge out any, and it looked as if there wasn't anything in it. Soon the opening to the pocket wasn't visible either.

"Activate." Elanus said.

The suit shimmered and suddenly Elanus was invisible. He walked out the door not making a sound, the suit even muffled his breathing. His first stop would be the Hufflepuff dormitories. He slipped into their common room behind a student and sat in a corner, waiting for them all to go to bed. He reached in his hidden pocket and pulled a rolled up map from it and studied it carefully. To him the map was visible but to everyone else there was nothing in the corner. Finally spotting his target he went to the girls rooms. He quickly found the right room, and then located his mark. She was sleeping soundly. Pulling one of the strange trinkets from his pocket he crouched beside her bed. He tapped the device and put it on her cheek. The trinket shrank down and seemed to crawl inside her nose. Once inside he knew it would crawl up into her sinus cavity and attach itself harmlessly turn invisible. It would attach harmlessly to her skull and conform it's shape to her sinus cavity. He did this in all the House dormitories to several students. The task was not a small one, as it took most of the night. Finally he went back to his own quarters and sat down on his bed. He took the hook off his head and pulled what looked like a book with no pages from his box. Inside the book was a map of Hogwarts that looked astonishingly similar to the Marauder's Map. He pulled the Marauder's map from his pocket and compared it to the one in his book. He could see tiny blue dots on his map with numbers next to them, and they matched up perfectly with the student's names on the Marauder's Map.

"It's a shame we have to use both." Elanus chuckled to himself.

He remembered giving the idea to the Marauders when he was still in school. He'd been the brainy kid few people cared to be around. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were the exception. They would ask him to make or help make all sorts of things. The only problem was they always got caught, thankfully they had never ratted him out. One day he told them he had an idea for the map. The Marauders figured out how to make it all by themselves before he had a chance. They wouldn't share how they did it with him though and he made his own version. The two each had their disadvantages. The marauder's map showed names and had no need of trackers, but only worked inside the Hogwart's grounds but couldn't tell if they had any enchantments on them. If the person you were looking for was in a crowded room, the Marauder's map was almost useless as well. His map needed trackers and didn't show names, but could tell if a person was invisible, using Polyjuice Potion and dozens of other things it could also work anywhere. Together though, inside the Hogwarts grounds at least, it was nearly impossible to hide if you were being tracked. He set the maps inside his box and took off his suit and went to bed. The next day he woke up about noon and went to see Samuel in his office when all the classes were over.

"How'd it go last night?" asked Samuel.

"Well, everyone on the list has been bugged so to speak." Elanus said. "We'll put the Marauder's map to test tomorrow and see if I can see people through those dissipation cloaks."

"You don't think you got the leader?" asked Samuel.

"I seriously doubt it." Elanus said. "Their leader is going to be the most careful of the whole lot. However with any luck we'll get 'em all at their next gathering. We just find them on my map, then whoever isn't on my map in their general area are also in the group. Those who are tracked, and not around them are probably not in the group."

"How are we going to capture them?" asked Samuel.

"That's your department. I can find 'em and all that but I'm not trained to handle a capture situation." Elanus said. "I will help though."

"I think if we capture their leader, they'll be easier targets." Samuel said. "As soon as you know I'm going to mail those snake heads to some of 'em. That'll probably scare 'em a little and I can intercept the girl who send out the bats. I'm pretty sure that's she's the leader."

"Or we could capture her and make up a story that she had to go home or something." Elanus said.

"That'd raise too much suspicion, what if she's the daughter of a well known family or has lots of siblings here. They'd know something was up." Samuel said. "I think lets get as much figured out as we can this week, and we'll get her next week. She carries a bunch of weapons with her and from what I've seen she knows how to use 'em." Samuel said.

"In that case you better come along too." Elanus said. "Possibly Maria and James too."

"That's what I was thinking. Do you need me tonight?" Samuel asked.

"I've got some tricks up my sleeve." Elanus said. "Thanks though."

"I'll help dad tonight then, he's almost finished." Samuel said.

"Good." Elanus said.

The two cousins talked a few more minutes before Samuel hurried off to his duelling class. Night fell slowly and Elanus suited up again and followed Samuel's directions to the tower where the bats were being sent from. This time he had a small camera like device in his hand, made invisible by his suit. The Marauder's Map and his own map were rolled up in his pocket. He sat in an abandoned classroom with the door cracked so he could see and slip out of the room silently. The girl's footsteps echoed quietly down the hall, and he pulled his maps from his pocket. There was nothing showing up on either map. When the girl passed a small dot on the Marauder's map showed up but no name was shown beside it. Elanus slipped the maps into his pocket and slipped out of the class room and followed the girl into the tower. The girl whistled softly and a bat flew from the rafters and landed on her outstretched finger. Elanus took a picture every time the girl did something, but the camera made no noise or flash. She retrieved a small rolled up piece of parchment from her cloak and slipped it into a metal tube that attached to the bat's back. The girl stroked the bat's head for a few minutes until the other bats started waking up. As soon as the bats began pouring out the window she released hers with them. After staring out the window a few moments she started back off down the hall with Elanus in pursuit. He followed her back to her dormitory and to her room. His eyes widened as he watched her remove her cloak. Elanus immediately ran out of the dormitories and down the halls until he found his way to an old bathroom. He looked under sink and a strange hissing noise escaped his mouth. The tap began to spin and the sink slipped down the wall exposing a large pipe. Elanus slid down the pipe and landed in a stone tunnel. He walked towards a faint light he knew was coming from a much larger room at the end of the tunnel. He entered a large room with stone pillars on each side. The sounds of metal striking metal echoed through the room. Gene stood over an anvil hammering at something, and Samuel was nearby polishing something on a small foot driven wheel. Elanus returned to visibility and removed his hood. Gene stopped hammering and Samuel turned around.

"What's wrong?" Gene asked.

"I followed the girl back to her dormitory." Elanus said.

"Did you see who she was?" Samuel asked, standing up.

"Yes." Elanus replied.

"Who?" Gene asked.

"You're not going to like this…." Elanus said.