Chapter 2: The Returns
It was a bright, clear mid-autumn night, with the moon pouring silver rays of radiance upon the tranquil world below. On a small island called England, in a narrow alley directly facing what appeared to be an imposing and important building of the city of London, a solitary figure was contemplating how to best make its imminent return to the magical world it had left behind seven years ago.
'A world that has shown me nothing but pain and sorrow', thought the figure bitterly. 'Why should I even bother mixing myself with them again?' As the figure stood silently in the alley, pondering on this last statement, a group of black clad men began to rush toward the building across the street.
'Hmm… just as I suspected', thought the figure half-heartedly. After a moment of pause in which the figure seemed to be hesitating on its next course of action, the figure finally pulled out a silvery piece of cloth from seemingly nowhere. With the invisibility cloak in hand, the figure cautiously started to make its way toward the building as well.
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Roger Davies, former Ravenclaw quidditch team captain, and currently leader of a team of ministry aurors assigned to guard a precious and fabled artefact uncovered just months ago, was looking at his team with almost parental fondness, even though he was only in his mid twenties. In front of him was possibly the weirdest security team ever assembled: a group of specialized wizards holding wands in their hands, and a bunch of muggles with some type of metallic contraption strapped in a holster at the waist; the two mismatched group were currently chatting amiably amongst themselves in an almost brotherly fashion. Its sights like these that made Roger think back, for perhaps the millionth time, to the series of events that led to his present situation.
A few months ago, a team of muggle scientists uncovered a legendary artefact that, up till now, was thought to have been lost forever. The news of the artefact's discovery had spread so fast and wide, that, by the time the ministry of magic got wind of it, there was no possible way to keep the discovery quiet short of memory charming every muggle in the world.
The muggles had been quick to put the artefact on display, for it was a legendary object in both the wizarding and muggle worlds, and an extraordinary amount of England's mythical history was based on it. However, the muggles knew little about the magical powers of the object they had uncovered, and even less about the destruction and horrors that the object could bring about, should it fall into the wrong hands.
Thus, after much convincing and even more negotiating, the muggle prime minister and the Minister of Magic finally agreed to set up a special security team to guard the artefact, as the muggles flatly refused to hand over the object to the Department of Mysteries for safekeeping, and the wizards could hardly leave such a powerful artefact under the protection of unsuspecting muggle guards.
And thus, Roger Davies and his team of aurors were dispatched to guard the relic, along with a specialized team of muggle guards that, as Roger has often heard, were called the "secret service". So far, both teams seemed to work well together, and efficiently thwarted a few non-magical thieves in their attempt to steal the prized object.
Roger was actually starting to get bored from his current assignment. It seemed that, although there are plenty of muggle folks seeking to steal the relic, no wizard or witch has yet made an attempt on the precious antique.
'Why even bother,' thought Davies as he stared blankly down an empty hallway of the Royal British Museum, where the artefact was on display. 'It's not like there are any dark wizards left after the Battle of Hogwarts. Even if there are, I really doubt they can organize themselves efficiently enough to take on thirty ministry aurors, ha!'
With that comforting thought in mind, Roger Davies headed back toward his team's headquarters, located just outside the artefact's display room.
Behind him, a dark figure silently followed, hidden from the naked eye by an invisibility cloak.
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Lucius Malfoy smiled evilly underneath his invisibility cloak. Everything was going according to plan. All the aurors (especially the idiotic looking team leader in front of him, thought Lucius) seemed to have their guard down lately, a fact that Malfoy summarized was mainly due to the lack of dark activity for the past seven years; but little did the aurors know that their false sense of security was instilled in them by Lucius himself. For he had, throughout the years, held what's left of the Death Eaters in check, and secretly built up an army to execute a plan that was guaranteed to bring them victory, a plan that he himself had formulated shortly after the fall of the Dark Lord.
And tonight, the first phase of that plan will be brought about. Soon, Lucius thought, the humiliating years spent hiding away as a fugitive and the trying times of patient waiting he had to endure will finally pay off. With that comforting thought in mind, Lucius continued to follow the unsuspecting auror back toward the display room, with, if possible, even more stealth than before.
Unbeknownst to him, another dark figure silently followed behind, hidden from the naked eye by yet another invisibility cloak.
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Roger Davies was sitting comfortably in his chair, dozing off slightly after the nice cup of warm milk he had minutes before. This was his off shift for the night, and, because he thought he was a very efficient auror, he would make sure he would sleep through every minute of his break. To that end, he had slipped a few drops of a sleeping draught into his milk. 'Nothing like a good efficient sleep', was his last thought as his mind drifted into the land of dreams.
'Attack, now!' came the voice of Lucius out of thin air. In seemingly (and quite possibly) pre-choreographed synchronism, twenty Death Eaters simultaneously cast the stunning spell from the safety of their invisibility cloaks, each targeting a different auror. All spells hit their mark, and within the flash of an eye, all twenty aurors on duty were lying on the floor, unconscious. All of the off duty aurors not "efficient" enough to have fallen asleep jumped off their chairs and retaliated blindly, with limited success, before they were brought down by stunning spells as well.
Lucius Malfoy slowly removed his invisibility cloak, and, as if that was a pre-determined signal, the remaining hooded figures became visible as well. Malfoy pompously walked past the fallen aurors (and one that was still asleep) toward the artefact display room, thinking all the while that this was too easy…
It was only the faintest movement of a metallic glint that saved Lucius Malfoy from certain death. Reflexively raising a barrier charm when he caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, Malfoy heard a loud bang that almost pierced his eardrums immediately after he completed the spell. A bullet bounced off harmlessly against the barrier around Malfoy, as did several other bullets that followed the first one, when the hidden secret service agent saw that his first shot had not effect.
Lucius Malfoy quickly recovered from the shock of hearing such a loud bang, and, realizing that the muggle weapons cannot penetrate his barrier spell, yelled over the repeated gunfire for his fellow Death Eaters to raise the same barrier. Shortly after, all the secret service agents assigned to guard the relic were lying on the floor as well, unconscious.
Lucius slowly walked to the guard who almost killed him, and, as if with a great amount of self-restraint, spat on the man's face and walked away. Malfoy knew that killing anyone tonight would cause a great uproar, and told all his followers to use stunning spells only. After all, a bunch of unconscious aurors would draw far less attention from the ministry than a bunch of dead ones.
Lucius carefully approached the display case in which the artefact was enclosed, as his followers spread out evenly around the room to safeguard against any unexpected threats. A shining plaque just below the transparent display casing read "Excalibur, fabled sword of King Arthur". Lucius smirked sinisterly and was just about to remove the sword from its casing when, several thuds, the unmistakable sounds of a body falling to the ground, were heard behind him. He quickly spun around as the remaining Death Eaters, alerted by the fall of their comrades, were already casting stunning spells at a figure that was completely covered in black.
The figure doubled over for an instant, seemingly overcome by the stunning spells, and then, to all of the Death Eater's confusion and horror, started to change shape in a grotesque fashion. Lucius Malfoy didn't know what was happening, but quickly summarized that the cloaked figure was not with the ministry aurors, and eagerly yelled: 'Avada Kedavra', launching the unblockable killing curse toward the figure. Some of the quicker witted Death Eaters came to the same conclusion as their leader and followed suit with their own killing curse.
By this point, the figure's shape was unrecognizable underneath the cloak, and can barely be described as humanoid. A bright, silver light seemed to start emanating from the figure itself, and, even though the figure was covered with a black cloak, all present can tell that the light was slowly, but surely, increasing in intensity.
The green beam of the first killing curse reached the figure just as the cloak slid off from the unidentifiable form. The silver light, now unobstructed by the cloak, flared in intensity and engulfed the deadly green bolts of the killing curses that were making their way toward the figure, disintegrating them into nothingness as its blinding rays speared outward in every direction.
The figure became so bright that all present could not longer bear to look at it directly, lest they become blind. Even through their closed eyelids, the Death Eaters could still see the bright form of the figure walking toward the Excalibur. Lucius Malfoy, who was standing directly in the figure's path, and realizing that the figure was intent on taking the sword, threw himself onto the approaching form in a last ditch effort to keep the object he came to steal from being stolen by somebody else.
Through his closed eyelids, Lucius could just make out some unidentifiable part of the bright form swing at him, and then, Lucius Malfoy, leader of the Death Eater Remnants, fell into the blissful land of unconsciousness.
The remaining Death Eaters were in a state of shock. This creature before them had resisted not one, but a half dozen killing curses with seemingly no effort at all. When they came out of their stupor and finally realized that the room has become dark once more, the figure, and the sword, were long gone.
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Out at the main entrance to the Excalibur Exhibit Room, the cloaked and invisible figure of Hermione Granger stood agape at what she had just witnessed. She had followed Lucius Malfoy from her alleyway all way to the Excalibur display room, using a magical pair of glasses to see through the invisibility cloaks, hoping to somehow steal the Excalibur back from the Death Eaters after Lucius stole it from the display room.
She, like the Death Eaters inside, has seen the way the creature has shrugged off the killing curses without effort. But, contrary to the Death Eaters inside, she had the presence of mind to cast a spell on her glasses, one usually used by wizards and witches to shield their eyes when observing solar eclipses. Thus, she was able to see very clearly the creature that just stole the Excalibur. And, for perhaps only the second time in her life, Hermione Granger could not comprehend what she just saw.
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