Chapter 3 – Through Line Riddled Lens
July 1992
Blaring horns, massive crowds and a deluge of rain, to say that it was a chore traversing through Bombay during the July monsoon was an understatement. Anya weaved through the crowd, clutching her raincoat ever closer, and promising herself to commit to mastering the Impervius charm after this was over. She shifted and adjusted her knapsack, as though confirming its weight would gave her reassurance. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a vial of Invigoration Draught, swallowing the whole dose in a gulp. She went for a second vial but stopped halfway, she would save that one for later. Her supply was short, and it wouldn't do to blow them all in a single session, not when everyone was beginning to lock up all the Invigoration Draughts the group had in store. She was sick of the stink eye she received every time she asked for Invigoration Draughts.
"You see anything yet?" her partner, a lanky Russian asked.
Her right eye seemed to flicker and shine with its own life. Strands of colour danced and twisted about her vision, crimson, violet, turquoise and more, each varying in thickness, opacity and movement. They came from everywhere and nowhere, twisting about alleyways, sprouting from her partner and even spiralling out of thin air. Everything was clear, each detail in the crowd and street lucid. From a turn into a drugstore, she finally saw what she was searching for, a thin strand of light blue coiling out of the store, almost transparent amidst the crowd and rain. Their man was smart, relying on the vast quantity of Muggles and the rain to hide his trail.
"Aleks, found it. Drugstore on the left. Portkey signature."
Aleks took the lead, a nondescript wave of his wand to check and clear the place. He strode in and scanned the place finally settling on the shopkeeper. Seeing what appeared to be an Indian father and son duo, the burly Indian gave him an oily smile, welcoming him in a rapid jabber of Hindi. Aleks pointed his wand straight at him and placed him under a Confundus charm.
"That's a sign our glamours worked," Aleks muttered, turning to Anya. "Alright Crow, start working."
Moving to the source of the blue coils, Anya squatted down and peered at the portkey signature, magical traces left behind by an activated portkey. Light bluish lines were gently coiling out from a single hovering ball of blue light beside a shelf of aspirin. Only at a feet above the ground, the ball was the size of a knut. Upon closer inspection, the ball was more like a clump of fragmented strands, each strand slightly different in hue, opacity and vibrating differently in amplitude and frequency. Anya began her work, drawing out her wand and jabbing the ball, muttering under her breath she worked on deciphering the portkey signature. Once the spell was completed, she felt a hum from the tip of her wand traveling down to her wrist where a miniscule script of runes encircled her wrist completely, etched in ink. The humming sensation concentrated on the runes and ink seemed to bleed out of her skin, beneath the set of runes. The ink twirled and twisted into a set of numbers.
19°04'15.2"N 72°52'21.3"E
Aleks' was admittedly impressed, he could she why Nathaniel trusted her to perform important roles. Aurors usually track down portkey signatures and decrypt their intended destination through expensive devices and very complex charm work. This girl just used her eye and a runic script, and she performed with clear professionalism. In fact, he was only here to assist, recommend and provide a source of side-along-apparition. She dug her free right hand into her pocket and pulled out a GPS and punched in the numbers, taking a good look at the results.
"Portkey leads to a bridge, just a few klicks out," said Anya, passing over the device to Aleks. "Any recommendations?"
Checking the portkey destination via map or any other means was always a necessary precaution in their line of work. Too many people died from apparating or portkeying straight to a portkey destination without caution.
"This building should do fine," replied Aleks, tilting the device for Anya to see as he pointed at the screen. "Good elevation, appropriate distance."
Anya nodded in agreement and grabbed Aleks' offered hand. With a spin, both of them apparated away with a 'pop'. One unpleasant trip took the pair atop a high rise building, Aleks took point, going straight for the rooftop access and sealing the access door with a locking spell. Anya started preparing, moving methodically, she lowered her knapsack and took out a pair of omniculars a set it on the floor. A few sticks of chalk followed and she began drawing out a circle of runes, right before the rooftop parapet and large enough to accommodate the pair. Once done, she double checked her work, nodding in approval at the disillusionment rune script. She motioned Aleks to come over and the pair settled themselves within the circle, Aleks took the omniculars and propped his elbows on the parapet while Anya rapped her wand on the floor, pumping magic into the runes.
She closed her left eye and stared at the runes for a few seconds, seeing the twirl of translucent glass-like cords seeping out from the runes. "Cloaking is good."
Aleks grunted in response, shoving the omniculars against his eyes and began to scout out the disclosed bridge. Finally, Anya took out the last item from her knapsack, her prized possession. It was a SVD-63, a Dragunov sniper rifle, developed in the Soviet Union and the second half of the two-part gift Nathaniel gave her for her seventh birthday. The rifle came with a wooden handguard and stock, runes were craved all over the rifle, from the muzzle down to the stock. Within the rifle, each individual parts too were carved with runes, from firing pin to trigger. At the bolt carrier, a single dragon heartstring was embedded in the metal. Anya pulled out the magazine and checked the bullets, the runes engraved on them were in order, and so she slid the magazine back in. Satisfied, she began scanning the bridge along with Aleks, each taking a side of the bridge and both working in silence. This went on for a few minutes before Aleks sounded out.
"Anya, I think I found him, can't confirm in this rain though, visibility is bad. There's a gathering of people on the bridge. Eastern part of the bridge. Range, thousand and three hundred meters."
Peering through the scope, Anya confirmed her partner's suspicion. In front of the traffic was a Chinese in a suit, briefcase in hand, at least he had the decency to look Muggle. He stood on the walkway of the bridge, facing a lanky Indian, this one did not possess the similar level of subtlety, dressed in extravagant robes of magenta. Both men seemed to be in deep conversation, the surrounding people loitering about had to be the bodyguards. This had to be the target, Anya could see the strings of magic sprouting out from all of them, there simply would not be another gathering of wizards so close to the portkey destination.
"You're right on that, Aleks," Anya confirmed, beginning to slow her breathing down as she rested her Dragunov on the parapet, adjusting the crosshair on her quarry. As her finger closed about the trigger, familiar white lines flickered into her vision, from her periphery to her target. It twirled and pulsated in an uneven spiral, like a cord being unwound and wound.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
Unwound. Wound. Unwound. Wound.
At her final exhale, the lines converged and drew taut. Her finger squeezed against the trigger and she felt the satisfying recoil of her rifle and heard only the whisper of a soft 'thump'. In the scope, she saw a thin spray of crimson erupt from her quarry's head. He was dead, there was no doubt. No amount of healing magic can revive a person who took a bullet in the head. Not when the runes on the bullet ensured that it violently fragmented within the head, rupturing the brain. The surrounding wizards drew out their wands and began casting spells all over the bridge, but the deed was done.
"That's a hit," Aleks said, tossing the omniculars and chalk back in the knapsack. He waited for Anya to stow her rifle and sling her knapsack before grabbing her hand. A wave of his wand erased any traces of the runic circle Anya drew. The bullet casing on the floor went ignored, the runes etched on it would vanish it away in ten seconds, same for the bullet fragments lodged in their quarry's head. Immediately, he spun about and apparated the both of them away, they would be taking the next flight from India to Thailand, before bouncing back to Russia and relaxing over a job well done.
XXXXX
"So, any regrets?" Nathaniel asked, drumming his fingers against a wooden table. "It's not a bad choice after all."
The Leaky Cauldron was packed and filled with an excited buzzed, the Quidditch World Cup fever was reaching its apex, wizards and witches were all discussing on the upcoming finals. Forecast, bets and debates we're being passed around throughout the pub. Nathaniel and Anya, on the other hand, silently sat down in a corner of the pub, both nursing a bottle of butterbeer.
The trip to Gringotts had been very enlightening, Anya remembered the height in which her eyebrows rose when she saw the number of digits in the Potter account. The properties she stood to gain were good too, they spanned from Britain itself to other countries such as France, Italy and Norway. All this for two years of schooling to scrape a couple of OWLs. It wasn't a bad idea, she could take this as an extended break from her usual line of jobs. On top of that, completion of OWL education only meant obtaining a minimum of three OWLs. After a lengthy discussion with Nathaniel, they agreed on placing Anya in Hogwarts for the inheritance, it was more than worth the time. Nathaniel had already drew up some bogus academic certificates from a random magical school in Russia, it should be enough to get Anya's 'transfer' to Hogwarts approved. The Hogwarts Board of Governors would not bother to look deep into her records, not with the magical government of Russia in such a sorry state. At least the massive screw up Nathaniel's grandfather made had some good come out from it.
With that choice made, all that followed was a signing of a few Gringotts paperwork and a blood authentication check to confirm her existence within Gringotts' records. A trip down Diagon Alley was in order, books, potions ingredients and robes soon found themselves within a magically expanded duffel bag. Once everything was settled, the pair found themselves in Leaky Cauldron.
"None at all Nathaniel," mused Anya. "I mean... I suppose I get to be a 'normal' kid for two years. Maybe that will do wonders for me."
"You can take the girl out of the Spook, but you can't take the Spook out of the girl."
"That's cheesy and you ought to be ashamed of yourself," Anya replied with an amused smile, she finished the last of her butterbeer before asking Nathaniel. "Shouldn't we be going soon?"
Nathaniel nodded in response and gestured for her to leave, the both of them left the pub to the Muggle world of London. They went to a deserted alleyway and Nathanial side-along-apparated Anya and him both to the Quidditch World Cup site. The pair landed a mile away from the actual grounds, with staff from both the Department of Magical Games and Sports and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement running all over the ground in preparations, it would not be wise to apparate right in the middle of it all without permission.
They both begin their respective work, Nathanial started scouting out the area, probing the ward systems and taking note of the security details in place. He had signed on a contract to provide protection to one Ethan Dawn, a rich wizarding business man who made one too many enemies cutting out bad deals, scams and lawsuits. Death threats came in Howlers and cursed letters, but he was an ardent Quidditch fan, there was no way he was going to miss out on the Quidditch World Cup – especially one hosted in his country. Still, he was a cautious man all too aware of many people who would be glad to see a curse hit his back. A short talk with one of his business partners soon brought a certain network into his view and the contract was put, with a tidy sum stated at the end of the contract.
Anya just sat on the ground and began fishing out the textbooks from her duffel bag. Despite Nathaniel, his uncle and various other people teaching her magic, in terms of the schooling syllabus she was still in a second-year standard as they only taught her spells they considered 'necessary'. After all, certain charms and potions may be useful, but in her line of work, charms to make inanimate objects dance are next to stupid and potions can simply be bought instead of brewed. With that in mind, Nathaniel insisted she began catching up the moment she got her books. If she wanted to avoid joining the third-years when she was old enough for the forth-year, she better get her bearings straight.
However, with only a minimum of three OWLs to be considered as receiving an OWL education, Anya had the freedom to cherry pick her focus of studies. In all honesty, she felt that she was already set to get three OWLs, Nathaniel had a talent in transfiguration and so did she, he drilled her hard on transfiguration as it was often used and he had a bias towards it. For her electives, she was going for Study of Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies. These she felt she could already take the OWLs for them, nearly all the runic modifications to her equipment were done by herself and being raised in practically a Muggle environment meant that Muggle Studies was a free pass. In fact, without any actual studying, Muggle Studies should be a free Outstanding to any Muggleborns and at least a free Acceptable to any Half-bloods. Transfiguration, Study of Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies, these three could be her aces, and any other subject was of secondary concern.
This pattern of Nathaniel scouting and Anya studying went on for the rest of the duration, with only an interruption in the form of a Hogwarts owl confirming that Anya's application for transfer was accepted. Days flew by and soon, the day of the Quidditch World Cup finals arrived. Anya once again found herself laying on the ground within a disillusionment rune circle, omniculars in hand and her Dragunov beside her. She was positioned atop a small hill overlooking the site, the camping site and path to the stadium were all in her field of vision. Half her attention was on picking out threats while the other half amused herself with the outlandish array of muggle clothing the wizards and witches donned amidst an equally outlandish array of blatantly magical tents, the Oblivators were probably having a headache at the moment.
Nathaniel would be with Dawn in person as a bodyguard, the later had already procured a ticket for the former as part of the contract. Since it was agreed upon that anyone with the intent of harming Dawn would unlikely do so in a crowded stadium for all to see, Anya only needed to cover the camping grounds and the path to the stadium. The relatively emptier camping grounds and footpaths to the stadium with the nearby forests provided more places to carry out a hit and run.
She focused the omniculars on the apparition point, the numbers 11:50 flashed on a corner of the lens. Ten minutes to noon, Nathaniel and Dawn should arrive any moment. True to her thoughts, a whirl of clothes materialised in the form of Nathaniel and Dawn. The former disguised under glamour charms was dressed in a bomber jacket and cargo pants, the latter wearing – Anya did a double take – a bathrobe. Well… it was not that bad, she had seen worse a few minutes ago, a wizard who mistook a clown costume for actual muggle clothes took the cake, his antics with one of the ministry staff was a laugh to say the least.
"Crow, this is Nathaniel," a voice came from the ear studs she was wearing. "We just arrived at the apparition point, anything to watch out for?"
"Nothing at the moment. If I were to wager, Mr. Dawn is a little too paranoid and he is just giving us free money."
"Noted. We'll be moving then, keep your eyes sharp."
She placed down her omniculars and picked up her rifle, with a sigh she went to work, it was going to be long day. The pair moved uneventfully through the camping site before entering the stadium itself. There were none of the all too familiar blue coils of a portkey lying in wait to ferry off Dawn to his death, there were no sinister vibrations of dark magic to be seen, neither were there translucent cords of a disillusionment charm hiding a potential murderer.
Scratch the last one.
Anya adjusted her sights to the shimmer of translucent cords amidst the site, there was disillusionment charms in play. In her crosshairs, all she sighted was a female house-elf – or was it male? She could hardly tell the difference. The hidden person was there, not that she could see the person, she only saw the charm's magic. The person was either under a disillusionment charm or a cloak using it, why there was a house-elf escorting the person was beyond her.
"Alright, we're in the stadium," Nathaniel stated.
"Roger. I see a disillusionment charm in play, might want to be careful. There is a house-elf following it, you can use that as reference."
"Is it coming near us?"
"No, it's moving to the Top Box gate, VIP seating."
"That means it's not a threat to us. Too far away, probably another person like our Mr. Dawn here who doesn't want bad attention to himself."
Anya kept silent and shifted uneasily, a house-elf following someone under disillusionment charms who was entering the VIP seating was too suspicious for her liking. As though sensing her concern, Nathaniel spoke up once again.
"Relax, Crow. It's nothing dangerous, I'm on the site and we are already in the stadium. You can relax until the match is over, read one of your textbooks, or even listen in on the commentary."
Finally, Anya relented and grabbed her copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3 and began reading, ignoring the riotous waves of cheering erupting from the stadium. Hours went by before she noticed a barrage of green fireworks lighting up the stadium as another roar of voices burst from the stadium. The match was over and Ireland won, evident from the green fireworks.
"I take it that the match the just ended?" Anya asked. "Victor Krum is a let-down if the colour of the fireworks are anything to go by."
"Yes it did, and I'm amazed that you actually follow Quidditch. Dimitri must be rubbing off on you. Next thing I know, you'll be lamenting that this year's FIFA finals had to end in penalties," Nathaniel replied. "Krum wasn't a let-down though, the rest of Bulgarian team was. Frankly, next to the Irish, any team will be. We're heading down now, Dawn is going to meet up with some of his friends. He probably plans on getting piss drunk with them. I checked on his friends, they have a tent directly South of your location, about four hundred meters. Big red tent was the description, check the area first before we reach there."
Anya complied and found nothing noteworthy. Once again, she herself adjusting her sights on a swirl of translucent cords and a house-elf. They were too suspicious, she was going to have to keep an eye on them. The swirl ended up disappearing into a tent, she sighed. If only she could see through solid objects as well, that would have been good. Resigned, she settled down on keeping a watch over Nathaniel and Dawn as the latter partied away. The hidden person's tent was far away from them, he should not be a threat.
Time passed before something happened that opened the adrenaline floodgates in Anya, one green flash somewhere in the camping grounds, followed by the warm glow of fire. Her relaxed body suddenly jerked up and she found her fingers flying for the trigger of her rifle. Swinging the rifle over to the source to distress, she peered through the scope to find the cause of the green flash.
Through the lens, she saw a group of masked and hooded figures marching down the camp site, waving their wands without care. The fire behind them flared up into a full blown inferno, stray spells were flying all over. At the centre of the group, a few figures were levitated and contorted. What concerned her more was the few stray figures running around, separate from the pack. They were too close to Nathaniel and Dawn for comfort and she could not possible keep track of all of them.
"Nathaniel, danger. Seems like a riot is going on. Masked and hooded figures. Stray spells all over the place. Main group of them is northeast of you, about a hundred meters. Lone wolves running around the whole place."
"Got it, I'll get Dawn and the two of us will disapparate out. Once the two of us are clear, you can head on out. Until then, cover us."
"Too late on that first part, Nathaniel," said Anya as she saw strands burst from behind a tent, washing over the area in reddish lines. She recognised it as an Anti-Disapparation Jinx, it was cast by either one of the masked men preventing his victims from escaping or an Auror trying to catch the former. "Anti-Disapparation Jinx is up, just grab him and run, its range isn't far. Twenty meters at most."
"Understood."
"Shoot to kill?"
"Shoot to kill."
In the scope, she saw Nathaniel exit the tent, pulling a terrified Dawn with him. Shield charms flew out of Nathaniel's wand as he pushed Dawn down, keeping him out from any line of fire. One rogue hex splashed against his shield as the pair began to hurry away from the source of flashing lights and loud bangs. Around the corner of a tent, a pair of terrified witches ran past the pair, Anya saw one of the lone masked man chasing the witches, he would run into Nathaniel and Dawn within seconds. Relaxing herself, she released her breath and squeezed the trigger, blood sprayed from the person's neck and the body dropped flat on the ground.
"Thanks for that."
"No problem."
From another corner, another masked man approached the pair. This time, Nathaniel was faster than Anya, she did not even rest her finger on the trigger before a swift flick of his wand banished the masked man into a tent, the entire tent collapsing on as the masked man flew into it. Nathaniel gave a rough pull and dragged Dawn on.
"Crow, I don't like this. All these tents provide too much corners for the both of us and you can't get a good line of sight. How far until we exit the jinx?"
"Few more meters and you're good," Anya replied, watching the pair rush on before they finally left the whirlpool of reddish lines. "Now. You're in the clear."
Nathaniel needed no more instructions and he immediately spun on the spot, bringing Dawn and him away. It was then that Anya heard a fresh wave of shrieks and screams coming, she turned and saw from another corner of the camping grounds a large cloud, glittering and green. A skull with a serpent coming out through the mouth. The Dark Mark.
Clearly, she had already overstayed. She stowed away her rifle, omniculars and books, a wave of her wand erased the runic circle she was in. Using a portkey to escape was most tempting, but an unauthorised portkey was illegal in Britain. It would not be surprising if the horde of fleeing bystanders were already creating unauthorised portkeys to escape en masse, maybe hers could slip through Britain's National Ward Grid undetected amongst the mass of desperate and illegal portkeys. However, she was not going take chances, not when Nathaniel left her with a ready form of escape, one she was all too willing to use.
Anya did a final check for any forgotten belongings before slinging her knapsack over and drawing out her wand and sidearm, a Makarov pistol engraved with her standard firearm runes. Silencing runes, stability runes, accuracy runes, cooling runes and acceleration runes. She began running away from the scene, down the hill and trees before reaching her getaway.
It was a Honda ATC250R, a three-wheeled all-terrain vehicle, parked on a dirt track under a disillusionment charm. It was an old model but that made it cheap to rent, not that it mattered when the Muggle in charge of renting it out can be Confunded; the real reason Nathaniel provided it instead of a broom. She mounted the vehicle and cast a disillusionment charm on herself, it was weak – her rune circle versions where much better – but it would do the job. Turing the ignition, she revved up the engine and sped away, kicking up dust behind her. Wind swept against her face and she cracked a wide smile, speeding down the streets of Arkhangelsk on Aleks' motorbike had always been one of her favourite pastimes and this feeling was close enough. With a final glace at the Dark Mark behind, she drove off into the night, memories of night time rides with Dimitri, avoiding an irate Aleks who did not want children touching his motorbike and stealing cans of pickled fruits off the local grocery with Wei Jen filled her mind.
XXXXX
The mood in the tent was not a happy one, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione all sat around a table, discussing the recent events. After Hermione's rant at the treatment of house-elves, the conversation soon turned to the potential identities of the masked men. Nearly everyone was adamant that the masked men had been Death Eaters who managed to dodge an Azkaban sentence, though there was hardly any solid evidence for it. A distraction came in the form of Percy entering the tent, sporting a bruised cheek.
"Father, I just came back with Auror Dawlish and a few enforcers, we found a dead body belonging to one of those masked man."
Shocked silence enveloped the tent, Fred's jaw dropping into a large 'O' while Ginny dropped the mug of warm tea she was drinking.
"Impossible," Mr Weasley said weakly. "None of us could get near any of them without them disapparating at the last moment."
"Who was it?" George demanded. "Come on Perce, out with it."
"It was Lewis Rosier," said Percy. "Brother of the late Death Eater Evan Rosier, he was trialled for being a Death Eater too, got off by saying his brother placed him under the Imperius curse."
"I knew it," Ron burst out. "Of course those nutters were all Death Eaters, who else could it be?"
"Yeah! Come on, Dad, the ministry can now have proof that the lot of them are the old Death Eaters," Fred added, having recovered from his initial shock. "Just have the Aurors arrest and interrogate them."
"Fred, it's not that simple," Mr Weasley replied wearily. "Just because one of them was an ex-Death Eater, we can prove that all of them are."
"Correlation does not imply causation," Bill summarised. "However, do we have any idea who killed him and how he died?"
"That's the part that got us stumped," said Percy uncomfortably. "No one was able figure it out. At first, Auror Dawlish reckoned that Rosier got hit with a stray curse from either a desperate bystander who knew his dark magic or one of their own masked men. Upon further spellwork, Auror Dawlish said that there was not a hint of dark magic on Rosier's body. In fact, there was no any sign of magical damage at all. That was why we were all confused, with the wounds on Rosier, it had to be a powerful curse that done him in, yet there was no dark magic involved."
"What kind of wounds?" Ginny asked, her face paling at the thought of a body mangled by dark magic.
"Simply put, Rosier's neck was not a pretty sight. Had to be a combination of a piercing curse, cutting curse or some curse that dealt internal bodily damage, I don't know to be honest," answered Percy, his face a little green from the memory. "All I know is that it had to be dark magic to render someone's neck to that state. There was this large wound on his left neck and then there these small ruptures on the other side of the wound as though the spell exploded from inside his neck out when it made that large wound, and there was-"
"Alright, Percy. You can stop now," Mr Weasley cut in loudly, his hands covering Ginny's ears.
"Maybe it was some kind of foreign spell that didn't involve dark magic," Hermione theorised weakly. "After all, there were wizards from all over the world here, maybe one of them knew some exotic spell that couldn't be detected?"
"You too Hermione," Mr Weasley sighed. "We should all cut this short and get to bed, it's late and I fear tomorrow is going to be a long day."