Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders, only much of the convoluted plot, Night Wolf and a few other things are of my own creation (but inspired from many things under copyright, which aren't mine).
Chapter 16 – Hogwarts Express
Major Casey walked casually through Kings Cross station, he and his 4 man squad were 'patrolling and observing'…however they were cleared to use extreme force should the situation require it.
It had been getting steadily worse in London, especially around this time with wand users out more often in the central London district.
While most of the assaults within the London central area had been mainly 'memory modifications' many which had been clumsily placed, there had been other more physical assaults performed by wand users while they were 'getting supplies'.
It wasn't unusual that the wand users ventured outside of Diagon Alley, however nor was it common, only some wand users conducted business outside, but their movement throughout the city was enough to cause some…suspicion in the greater population, it was a much more subtle violation of their spaces that got the population worried.
A blank area of your memory, or a person suddenly appearing…or a carriage drawn by 'horseless' or worse skeletal horses was much easier to remember than a space ship landing in the middle of Trafalgar Square.
Today was one of the days that General Lethbridge Stewart had ordered his team, and others out for.
In previous years it hadn't been as bad, but this year, Voldemort's 'Death Eaters' were out in force, in the last few weeks he and most other teams had been out in the field on Earth rather than off planet.
Ah ha…here we go. Casey thought to himself as he watched three figures who looked like they were going to a night at the opera…during a medieval reproduction walk through Kings Cross purposefully.
Two of the figures looked like they'd overdone it with the peroxide something chronic, the woman walked as though she had something wedged up her arse.
"Scorpion you have a go." He muttered into the radio link in his label.
"Roger Kestrel, progressing to target."
Lieutenant Hays walked casually into the Kings Cross car park, and looked around. There wasn't anything out of place, nothing out of the ordinary and considering what day it was and which train was leaving later this morning that was what was out of the ordinary.
Reaching into his pocket he withdrew the first tube of dust, a combination of magical herbs, a standard weighting agent of sand and a dried potion which had been assembled for him.
He wasn't quite a Sorcerer, he didn't have all the training required of that particular rank, but he'd had quite a bit of field training and was even thinking about putting in for the extra training to get a Sorcerer's ranking.
Weighing the tube in his hand he looked around for the best place to start, they'd considered a magical jammer, but it was still slightly too heavy for a covert squad to carry around and set up.
Guessing that the target would park his means of travel as close to the he walked back to the entrance towards the station.
Concentrating as he did on feelings of 'wrongness', on the way the wind moved around…for scents just below normal recognition…
He almost announced with an 'ah ha!' when he realised that the…whatever it was, was about 10 meters to the left from the station, however he just patted inside his jacket, the stun/kill weapon they'd been cleared to carry.
Taking one final glance around at the people, but everyone was focussed on where they were going rather on the man walking over to a space which everyone just walked by preferring to think that there was nothing there.
Tipping the dusty concoction into his hand he held it for a moment against the wind, taking a deep breath Lt Hays blew the dust towards the…hidden thing.
"Reveal, reveal…." He muttered, concentrating on the area…slowly he watched the dust flick around, almost latching itself onto the…the carriage and horses which slowly appeared, revealed before him.
And a man with a wand, who was looking around holding the reigns to the horses in one hand…and a wand in the other, he had enough time to stare at Lt Hays before he was shot with a red beam.
The horses barely stirred.
Lt Hays smiled to himself and walked casually up to the carriage and opened up the door.
Taking a minute camera from within his jacket he quickly took a set of photos.
It was implausibly big inside, and plush, much like a limousine, except it was made of completely natural fibres and materials.
Taking one final glance around he stepped back carefully shutting the door.
Replacing the camera in his pocket with withdrew the tracking device, a piece of composite material similar to the teleport 'rocks' which the UNIT vessels and the Gibson Desert facility uses.
He took a small bottle and squeezed a portion of silicon onto it, affix it to the back underside of the carriage.
Stepping back from the carriage as the particles he'd blown onto the carriage had blown off, the charm which had hidden it from sight was still active, and as less and less of the dust was near it the carriage became…less solid, but he still knew it was there.
"Kestrel, device placed, returning to secondary observation point." He muttered as he walked back to the main entrance of the station.
"Received Scorpion." Major Casey muttered, the two blonds had just 'disappeared' through a brick wall.
According to their briefing there wasn't anything stopping you from walking through the brick wall…just a slight resistance so that anyone could lean against it, without falling into the wand users' train station.
"Kestrel, this is Crow, eye ball on Raven, in company of 3 additional…" There was a pause.
"Crow, status of Raven?" He muttered as he pretended to check the times of the incoming train.
"Raven is under surveillance, wand'rs approx 2 under cloaks."
"Keep your distance Crow…do not intercept. Keep under observation."
"Eye Kestrel. Crow Out."
Major Casey nodded to himself, the General and Sorcerer Birmingham had informed them that Harry Potter would probably be under Dumbledore's surveillance, Harry was a great guy…with a shit deal, but a great aim and a quick learner and was one of the wand users who wasn't a wolf who hadn't…cracked the shits when he'd found out about Night Wolf…not like a few of the other wand users.
As it approached 11am Major Casey hit the small button inside his lapel.
"Jackal, go for insertion."
"Roger Kestrel. Approaching insertion point." Major Casey walked slowly away from the entrance to Platform 9 and 3/4, passing Jackal, or Jackie Williams as he walked away half way down the station.
"Standby to assemble at defence positions." He said clearly as he positioned himself to wait and watch.
Both General Lethbridge Stewart and Sorcerer Birmingham had informed them of the possibility of a large scale attack on the station by Death Eaters.
While it was unlikely they would attack in the morning with no Hogwarts students to witness…or join in, it was still a possibility.
Sorcerer Jackie Williams walked calmly, yet swiftly up to the barrier, she knew it was a barrier…she'd read the various manuals, yet…it still made her skin crawl walking through one.
After a second or three of blackness the world resolved itself out into a station, much like the one she'd just left. Just without the cigarette butts, empty drink cans and a slight smell of diesel.
Instead there was the heavy smell of burning coal, most likely from the bright red steam engine hissing in front of her.
'This I suppose is the Hogwarts Express.' She thought to herself as she looked around.
She was on this side of the barrier, just in case, to provide a rear guard, just in case an attack happened.
Night Wolf and UNIT London couldn't do much on this side of the barrier, but if the wand users took a battle outside the field of this…station, then they'd have to do something about it.
Jackie stood at the back of the station watching all the various wand users milling around, watching, waving, more students coming onto the station with their owls, animals, trunks.
It made her a little sick, knowing that many of them would probably shoot her dead if they knew 'what' she was.
That was how a lot of the wand users thought of people like her…
There were many parents of children from the world outside of the wand users, but she watched with an annoyed gaze as she saw many of the wand users give them a sideways glance…some times curious, sometimes intrigued, and then every so often there was that glance, not even of disguised disgust and hatred.
Of course, there was also the fact that she could turn into a wolf at any given moment.
That was why she'd requested to go onto this side of the station as the 'advanced scout'.
She had trained from a very young age, she could almost 'sense' trouble.
Then the whistle blew.
There would be no point in trying to radio Kestrel while she was around so many wand users, and considering she was on a wand user station, their radios wouldn't be able to cut through the background noise of so much uncontrolled wand magic.
However, Kestrel as well as the rest of their team knew when the train departed, and from the intelligence at Night Wolf they all knew roughly when the parents would depart Platform 9 and 3/4.
Gazing around she couldn't…no there was something, turning slightly to her right, in the corner…
The two wand'rs who were tailing Raven were there…probably.
There were at least two figures under occlusion/invisibility cloaks.
Looking back away from the slight shimmering, like a heat wave she watched the carriages pull away from the station, the parents and guardians were shouting farewells to their charges as they disappeared off to the Hogwarts Castle at the so called 'unplottable' location.
Standing back as the parents all seemed to rush for the barrier now that the train had departed she hung back, trying to stay casually back from the two figures under cloaks.
Jackie took a few steps backward and down wind about a meter from the shimmering haze.
Sniffing slightly as she did she confirmed one thing, they were definitely men…who didn't use any sort of deodorant, and most likely hadn't showered in the morning.
She didn't need to be a wolf to know that, anyone with a nose could tell they hadn't been near water in the last 24 hours.
As the crowd started to move, her two cloaked figures decided to move towards the middle of the group.
After a few moments observing, she made her way to leave as well, it was only as she approached the small line that had formed did she pass a small what could be a group, and a man who definitely didn't have any children…he had a odd hook nose which looked like it had been broken and not fixed properly, something very odd…for a wand user.
She'd put a not of it in her report.
Unable to hang around to watch what the odd group was doing, not without alerting the two shimmering people in cloaks…they were beginning to remind her of the Vardans as pictured in the UNIT manuals…except less metallic and shimmery.
Letting go of a breath she didn't know she'd been holding as she walked out of the barrier she looked around, there weren't any screaming people, or dead bodies…or any attack that they would have to explain to the UNIT London as an 'unidentified' terrorist attack, to which they'd give the 'it's aliens' look.
"Jackal, thought we'd lost you for a second there, anything suspicious?"
"Nothing…I don't think, just an odd meeting at the end…the guys keeping Raven under surveillance were there…couldn't shake."
She muttered as she pattered her pocket, making sure her stun/kill weapon was still there.
"Continue surveillance, follow the group out, re-group at primary meeting point."
"Sir."