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Onyx wasted no time disapperating after breakfast. Torsten was waiting for her at the Manhattan office clearly irritated.
"I thought Voldemort was just a European problem. You were supposed to keep this contained." Torsten flipped his long blonde mohawk out of his face and starting walking towards the directors office, snapping to indicate that Onyx should follow.
"Missed you too, Tor." She said sarcastically. The office was abuzz with what had happened the previous night. Normally, the Strategic Magic and Science Division was chiefly concerned with research and policing of out of the ordinary magic. Onyx and Torsten were one branch of the SMSD that dealt with the policing of extreme magic. When Voldemort showed his face again Onyx was sent to Europe to determine if there was a threat to the United States and if so, to contain it.
"Has the mark disintegrated yet?" She asked as they walked into Zed's office. The man himself was hunched over a map of New York City that glittered with lay lines showing the currents of magic throughout the city.
"It did this morning." Zed looked up from his map and eyed Onyx. "You sure you're ready to get back in the field?"
"Just like riding a bike, right?" Onyx tried to sound cheerful and confident. Truthfully, she wasn't sure how ready she was and she needed to get home and get to the center of the James Potter mystery.
"We've managed to track down the magic to this location." Torsten jabbed a finger down on the map. "While we were waiting for you to get back I took a team in and arrested a wizard we found there."
The indication was clear. The team didn't need her, Torsten though that she was just extra weight. As the first female field agent of the SMSD this was all too familiar to Onyx.
"We thought you could question him since you've been learning all about the deatheaters in England." Zed glared at Torsten. The Director, thankfully, didn't share the same opinion as most of the other agents. He had watched Onyx progress through the academy and was never anything other than impressed with her.
Onyx agreed and headed to the interrogation room. The use of certain magical ways of getting the incarcerated to tell the truth was strictly illegal, but there were other ways of getting them to talk. Onyx started by circling the man like a bird of prey. He was not what one would expect from a deatheater. His diminutive stature and nervous, beady eyes gave him away as easily intimidated.
"Mr. Campbell, is it?" Onyx finally sat down across from him at the table and gave a warm smile.
The wizard looked at her warily. "You won't get anything from me."
Onyx took his right forearm and waved her wand over it, no Dark Mark appeared. "Why did you summon the Mark if you're not one of Voldemort's fold?"
Campbell winced at that name and jerked his arm away. "The Dark Lord is coming." He tried to sound menacing, but the shake in his voice gave him away. "I figure I might as well choose the winning side for when he gets here."
Onyx rolled her eyes. He was just another fear monger. There was absolutely no evidence that Voldemort or his followers were trying to gain a foothold in the States. She left the room and joined Zed and Torsten in the observation area outside. "I don't think we have anything to worry about."
"Well at least you're back now, so if something does happen..." Zed trailed off.
"You know I'm always up for a mission." Onyx stopped him before he could finish his though process. "But, with your permission sir, I would really like to go home for a while, I need to be with my family."
"Of course. I'll fill out the paperwork." Zed waved his hand dismissively. Onyx could tell there was something he wasn't telling her. Normally it took weeks of begging for him to allow anyone on the team time off.
"See you later golden child." Torsten mocked Onyx as they walked out of the building and separated. She chose to ignore the gibe and instead found an abandoned alley to disapperate from.
She landed in her small hometown, Raven's End, and breathed a sigh of relief. As much as she loved her job, hiding her magic was difficult to do surrounded by the masses of no-majes in New York. Here, she and all the other witches and wizards in town were free to practice without fear of the secrecy laws. Hundreds of years ago, the magic folk of the town made a deal with the no-maj leaders and magical and non magic people lived together ever since. It was only through a series of complicated legal loopholes that the town was allowed to exist, but for the couple hundred of inhabitants it was paradise.
Onyx smiled and headed for her family's diner. It was just about past the morning coffee rush so the place shouldn't be too busy. The friendly cling of the door hitting a bell hanging from the ceiling greeted her and she sat down at the bar.
"There's our girl!" Jaime came out from the kitchen and leaned over the counter to give her a big hug. The feel of his flannel shirt and the scent of coffee and cloves instantly made Onyx feel at home. "We've missed you like crazy around here." His British accent painfully reminded Onyx of the people she left behind in London. "You hungry? Give me ten minutes and I'll have a giant plate of chocolate chip pancakes ready."
"Just coffee, Jaime. Thanks though. Is Mom around?" Onyx really hoped not, she wanted a chance to speak to her stepdad alone.
Jaime shook his head. "Ollie had a school trip today, your mum volunteered as a chaperone."
Onyx's stomach clenched at the thought of her black-haired little brother who, in retrospect, shared a strong resemblance with Harry. The seven year old was currently in the no-maj school before going to Ilvermorney in a few years just like Onyx had done. She wondered how the truth about his father would affect him.
"What's going on in there?" Jaime playfully tapped her head and sat a steaming cup of coffee in front of her.
"I just -" Onyx chewed on the inside of her cheek. "I was in England for a while and it just got me thinking about your accent." She couldn't just tell him outright about her discovery, the news might make him panic or go insane depending on the type of magic that was used on him. "You really don't remember anything before waking up at Grandma and Grandpa's?"
"We've been over this, Nyxie. All I remember is waking up, meeting your mum a few weeks later, and the rest is history. Why?" Jaime sounded upset, talking about his mysterious past usually put him in a bad mood.
"If you could find out who you were, would you?" Onyx looked up from her coffee. Jaime wore a conflicted expression, his eyebrows drawn together and his lips pursed.
"It, would be nice to know." He said slowly. "But then, I suppose, I would rather look to the future than the past. And besides, all the healers said they couldn't even identify the memory spell used on me, so it's a moot point anyway."
"But if you learned something about your past," Onyx persisted. "Would you want to know who you used to be even if you can't remember it?"
"I don't know!" Jaime threw his hands in the air. "Where are all these questions coming from?"
"I - I found something." She hesitantly pulled the photograph from her jacket pocket and laid it on the counter. "I found out who you used to be."
Jaime took the photo from her and studied it carefully. He lightly ran his fingers over the fading images, stopping at his own likeness. "Where did you get this from?" He asked softly.
"I can't tell you exactly who it came from. But it is you, isn't it?" Onyx sat her cup of coffee aside and placed a hand on Jaime's forearm. "Do any of them look familiar?"
Jaime shook his head 'no' while examining the image. "It...feels familiar. But I can't...I can't grasp it. I can't..."
Onyx watched in horror as the picture fell from Jaime's hand and he slid to the floor unconscious. "Jaime!" She yelled and jumped across the counter. "Jaime!" She screamed again and shook his shoulders. She ran outside and made the sigil for magical emergencies with her wand. Within minutes a team of magical healers arrived at the diner ready to help. Through all of the noise, Jaime never opened his eyes.