AN - Here's the next chapter. Enjoy, and as always, feel free to leave a review.
Colonel Marshall Sumner drummed his fingers on the conference room table, waiting impatiently. It was never one of his strong-suits, desk life. Colonel Sumner was a door-kicker, living for the action. While it was an honor to run Task Force Ansible, it required much more desk work than he was accustomed to.
Today, he'd spent the morning in a briefing room listening to two science officers argue, diplomatically, over whether funding should be directed to Mk III Patronus munitions, including the possibility of miniaturization into grenade form, or to direct the funding into body armor systems using literal dragon scales.
Both would be expensive as hell, and even his budget had its limits. Eventually, he settled on the armor option. Dragon scale armor showed promise in that dragon scales were strong enough to stop a bullet, and somehow absorbed or deflected most magical attacks. A team of operators covered in the stuff could be unstoppable. If not for the fact that the scales were not common and were fairly expensive. The method currently being researched attempted find a way to manufacture the scales synthetically.
Then he sat in a budget meeting where he was encouraged by a bean counter sent by Washington to figure out ways to cut spending within the Task Force. The guy didn't have clearance to get details on things like Task Force Ansible, all he knew was a lot of money went to the project and he wanted to make it less.
Now, he was waiting in a conference room at the Task Force Ansible headquarters on Fort Bragg for General Thomas, President Harris of MACUSA and Albus Dumbledore. The meeting wasn't scheduled to start for another ten minutes. The fact that he'd already been there for half an hour stemmed from the fact that he had it on good authority that Dr. Handover was looking for him, wanting him to change his mind about the Mk III's.
It didn't project the head honcho military commander feeling, his ducking away to escape the man's desired meeting, but such was life. He wasn't willing to sit through another lecture.
Instead, he turned his thoughts to what he knew about the upcoming meeting. Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, had contacted President Harris, asking for a meeting that involved TFA. The headmaster had been pleased with the performance of the Task Force the previous year and their role in exonerating an innocent man. It hadn't won the them many favors with the British Ministry, however, as it caused a fair amount of embarrassment.
The door opened and an aide stepped in, followed by General Thomas, President Harris, and Albus Dumbledore. Colonel Sumner stood up as they entered, gesturing to seats at the empty table emblazoned with the Task Force Ansible patch, a Spartan helmet with night optics attached to the top, beneath it a crossed rifle and wand. The wand was designed such that, if the observer didn't know what it was, it would be mistaken for a rocket.
"Colonel," General Thomas greeted as he entered the room. "I hope you weren't waiting long."
"Not at all, sir." Colonel Sumner sat down last of all. "I was just taking a break from the briefings." Like the Colonel, General Thomas had been a career shooter before being appointed to head JSOC. He kicked down doors and was in the center of the action for years. If anyone understood the pain of attending briefings and reading reports all day, it was going to be him.
"Headmaster, welcome," Sumner said after a moment of silence. "You are the one that requested this meeting, so by all means, what can we do for you?"
"Thank you, Colonel." Dumbledore said. His eyes were twinkling in that same friendly manner that Sumner remembered. "I am going to share with you all some information, much of which is known to very few people, and some of which is known only to me. It is my hope that you will reach the same conclusions that I have."
"Fifteen years ago, the British wizarding community was fighting a war. Our opponent, Voldemort, was a master of dark magic. He learned of a prophecy, the contents of which are of the utmost secrecy. I will share with you this, it indicated that a boy would be born that could challenge him, that would be his undoing. Voldemort believed that boy to be Harry Potter and tried to kill him." Dumbledore continued the history lesson with the rapt attention of those at the table. They knew bits and pieces of it, but not the whole story.
"Harry's mother, Lily, protected Harry with her life and it caused a particularly ancient magic to protect him. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the spell backfired. The vast majority of the British wizarding community, indeed, the wizarding world, believes Voldemort dead." Dumbledore paused.
"But not you?" General Thomas reached the conclusion the same as the rest of them at the table.
"I believe that Voldemort, though not exactly alive, is not dead either." Dumbledore said. "During Harry's first year, an attempt was made to steal the Philosophers Stone. It would allow the owner to live indefinitely. The attempt failed, thanks in large part to the bravery of young Harry. In his second year, a Basilisk was set loose in the school. Harry told me, after killing the creature, that he'd been confronted by a ghostly vision of Tom Riddle." Dumbledore stopped for a minute, searching for the right words.
"Not many people knew that Tom Riddle was the name given to Voldemort when he was born. The vision was destroyed when Harry destroyed a diary, once owned by Tom. It is my belief that Voldemort may be using Horcrux's to extend his life."
"My god," President Harris murmured. "You said Horcrux's, plural. You believe he created more than one?"
"I have no way of telling whether or not the diary was a Horcrux or not, unfortunately. I had hoped that, if it was, it was the only one and that Voldemort might be permanently vanquished. Recently, however, there was a murder in the small town of Little Hangleton. I have kept an eye on the news from there, as it once housed the Riddle family. The man murdered, Frank Bryce, was the house keeper of the Riddle home, and there is no sign of how he may have been killed."
"A hell of a coincidence," Colonel Sumner said.
"Hang on a minute," General Thomas chimed in, waving a hand as though to back them up. "I'm still a bit lost here, what is a Horcrux?"
"It's a rather nasty bit of magic, literally tearing a piece of one's soul off and placing it in an object. The only way to create one is to kill someone. It is a painful process. To do it more than once..." President Harris explained, trailing off at the thought.
"Aside from this, a Ministry employee, Bertha Jorkins, has gone missing recently. This brings me to the current problem. There are two major events being held in Britain this year," Dumbledore said. "The Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament, which will be hosted by Hogwarts."
"Alright," Sumner said at Dumbledore's pause. He was curious where all of this was leading.
"I believe Voldemort is still alive, in some fashion, and still is obsessed with killing Harry. Harry will be attending the World Cup with the Weasley family. Arthur won tickets, quite a few actually. Anyway, Bertha was quite familiar with the Ministry plans for both events. My concern is that if Voldemort makes an attempt on Harry's life, in any form, that it will be made with prior knowledge to Ministry security measures."
"And thus around those measures," Sumner completed the thought aloud and Dumbledore nodded gravely.
"We aren't exactly welcome company in Britain," General Thomas said. He was inclined to help. The fact that they would be fighting the good fight was appealing, and done right it would be great PR for the Task Force. They'd made great strides and the United States was the safest it had been in generations, but the magical community just wasn't quite sold yet. "We caused the Minister a bit of embarrassment last year."
"It's not exactly like we can deploy a company of troops to the World Cup," President Harris agreed. "With your invitation, we can probably do something about the Triwizard event, but I don't see what we could do about the World Cup."
"Forgive me for asking, sir," the aide, a young lieutenant, asked. He'd been fresh out of West Point, top of his class, when he'd been selected for the task force. He was eager to please but had a lot to learn. "I mean no disrespect, but how is it our fight?" He gave Dumbledore an apologetic look. He wasn't pushing against helping, but simply trying to understand what stakes the United States had.
"The international magical community is still having a tough time with the creation of Task Force Ansible. After several successful domestic operations that have pacified a large portion of the United States' magical communities, along with the successful deployment to Hogwarts, we've gone from outrage and hostility in the international community to something more along the lines of a wary distrust," General Thomas replied.
"It has been a tough year for the United States magical community, for different reasons than those of the past," President Harris added. "By legitimizing this Task Force, we have gone against long standing tradition separating magical and muggle communities. It could be, and in many cases is, argued that we have broken the statute of secrecy, though those within the Task Force are signatory to that very statute as well. Many other Ministries will have nothing at all to do with us currently, no diplomatic ties at all. There was even talk of an international effort to invade the United States, though that seems to have been all talk. Things are stable, for now, and if we can improve the image of our cooperation, perhaps we can get back to the international table and get back to trading and being a part of the world." The answer seemed to satisfy the young lieutenant, as he remained quiet.
"Do we have any assets in the area that could be rapidly deployed?" General Thomas asked, getting the meeting back on track.
"Reaper is coming toward the end of an op in north-eastern Africa, depending on if they manage to get any more intel. They have a prior relationship with Harry, we could probably retask them for an FID assignment." Sumner suggested. Foreign Internal Defense meant sending operators into a foreign country and protecting a foreign individual. In this context, it would be a covert assignment and without express permission of the hosting government. Not exactly legal, but that's what SF teams were best at…
"It wouldn't be a tough narrative…" General Thomas trailed off for a moment. "If nothing goes wrong, no one knows any better. Worst case scenario, they're found out and we can say they were on leave and visiting their friends." The general looked to Harris, who nodded in acknowledgment.
"Thank you," Dumbledore said. "As for the Triwizard Tournament, I am afraid it isn't as simple as me inviting you to provide security. The Ministry worked hard this year and is very involved in it. Plus it involves students from two other nations as well, France and Bulgaria. Both Ministries have been following news of the Task Force closely for signs of further breach in of the Statute of Secrecy. I don't know that they would be receptive to security provided by the Task Force."
"I see," General Thomas thought aloud. "I think, that without your invitation, our hands are tied. The best we could do is station a response force at RAF Lossiemouth in case of emergency, but they'd be a couple hours away."
"I appreciate everything you've done so far," Dumbledore bowed his head slightly in respect. "It is a relief not to be the only one fighting for the light."
"Agreed," President Harris said.
"I'll draw up the paperwork and get a sitrep from Reaper by the end of the day," Sumner chimed in. "Anything else?" When nobody said anything, Sumner stood. Everyone else followed and they parted with handshakes and a lot of work to do.