Chapter 6 – The Rescue?
Harry's eyes opened wide as he stared at Dr. Randels. "He knows something," Harry thought "about magic that no other wizard knows. Could a muggle really help?"
Incongruous with the discussions so far Dr. Randels stood up and made a particularly odd request, "While it is on my mind Mr. Potter I would sincerely appreciate the opportunity to seeing the simplest of magics performed. Could you show me one spell, no matter how remedial?"
Being no reason not to Harry, raised his wand and said "Lumos". Immediately a soft white beam of light shown out of Harrys wand. Turning to the doctor in order to see his reaction Harry was surprised to see Dr. Randels with is eyes momentarily closed and taking a deep calming breath.
It was at that moment four deafening cracks occurred in quick succession. Harry recognized Moody's voice barking orders, "Tonks, Jones secure the entrance. Lupin take out their eyes." In a flash the two women were out the door, wands ready. Lupin rapidly began scanning the room with what looked to be an overly large magnifying glass and occasionally firing freezing charms to spots on the walls. Meanwhile, Moody was frightful to witness. His held his wand stiffly out in front of him pointed directly at the heart of Dr. Randels and his was magic eye spinning so fast to almost make you dizzy. "Do move, don't even think about it" he finally said.
All the while Dr. Randels peacefully watched the events as if they were the most common of occurrences. Lupin finished examining the room stood at a marked angle from Moody before also pointing his wand at Dr. Randels heart. A moment later Tonks, currently sporting violently pink hair, and Hestia reentered the room leading the soldier who had read to him from the file completely bound in ropes and slightly elevated from the floor.
"The rest of the building was empty except for this one" Tonks informed Moody.
"Find and disarm any muggle elekric eyes and ears. That and they always have some of those puter' brains about. Bring them here." Moody ordered. Lupin automatically shifted his stance to watch over the soldier, leaving Tonks and Hestia free to once again leave the room.
On her way out Tonks quickly looked over her shoulder and said "Wotcher, Harry!" while winking her eye "Hey Moody I'll be right back, so don't kill anybody until then, ok?"
Moody merely grunted. With the situation under full control, Moody relaxed only the barest amount and asked "Are you ok Harry, Has this muggle hurt you in anyway?"
Harry was so relieved to see Moody and Lupin he blurted out, "No, I'm fine. Really I am. Dr. Randels has here hasn't hurt me at all, except I guess when they first took me, that felt none to good." Realizing his last comment only made the situation tenser he added "Seriously I'm fine and look they gave me back my wand and everything." He held up his wand for everyone to see.
Turning his attention to Dr. Randels, "So you ya just decided to have him over for some tea huh, muggle. Have you done anything to him?"
"We applied 15ccs of a mild anesthetic prior to transport. Since then I have been continuously monitoring his condition with the equipment beside his bed. You may check to strip charts if you wish." Dr. Randels motioned to a device that looked like a printer against the wall, "By the way are they all ok?"
This question seemed to throw Moody off his guard and he suspiciously eyed the doctor before responding, "They'll be fine, we took them to St. Mungo's. They are receiving care and will have their memories modified prior to release."
Dr. Randels straightened his shoulders and formally stated, "At this time let me assume full responsibility for all actions of my men. They were briefed that the safe capture and extrication of all the individuals living at Number 4 Privet drive was imperative to national security. As to whom Mr. Potter was or the nature of the tactical scenario they were not informed. If there is to be any repercussions for this act, let them be directed against me."
"We already knew that you sent your men in unprepared to meet Wizards", Moody responded dryly. The thought men being sent to their possible deaths without knowing what they were up against was reprehensible.
"Really sir, how does one prepare for 'Wizards'? The only protection I could offer them was ignorance. My research indicates that we 'muggles', to use your vernacular, are routinely taken and released so long as we are not a threat. Not that it was likely any of Mr. Potter's protectors would actually come to harm in the first place; you should know that all our weapons carried non-lethal ammunition. Furthermore, your statement implies that you have magical techniques in order to extract information from an individual, magical or otherwise. I therefore volunteer for any such procedure. You will find that I am being completely honest with you." Randels offered.
Lupin was getting tired of all this chit chat. "Lets just take Harry and get out of here." He exclaimed, "We can let an Obliviator team clean all this up."
"No." said Harry. Remembering Lockhart he thought of Dr. Randels mind turning to goo, thereby losing whatever secret that lay in there. "He wants to help." Said Harry. Finishing the thought only in his mind he added "and I can't beat Voldemort alone."
Both Moody and Lupin looked agast. It was Lupin who spoke first saying, "Was your brain addled when you were captured? He attacked you. The only reason we found you was that the Improper Use of Magic Office detected your spell and we came immediately. We had hoped that you would be able the get your wand back to send us a message."
Turning to Dr. Randels Harry said accusingly,"You wanted this to happen didn't you?"
"Yes Mr. Potter, think of it as a resume, I needed to get into the magical world and you are my ticket." Randels replied perfectly unabashed. "I've heard stories that if you are knowledgeable about computers and want to work for a major corporation, you hack into their system and send them an offer letter; hire me and I will make sure this doesn't happen again. When I was first requested by the Prime Minister to respond to the threat of Voldemort…" Randels paused for a moment to observe the reactions of the Moody and Lupin who had flinched at the sound of Voldemort's name. "As I was saying when the Prime Minister personally requested me to supervise our operations I found a dearth of relevant data. Oh yes there is an endless parade of charlatans and swindlers that pretend to be 'wizards', that is when I decided that I must meet you Mr. Potter."
"Bullocks" said Hestia Jones as she entered the room. Everyone turned to she was she was so agitated about. "That's right, bullocks Dr. Randels. I am personally involved with monitoring everything that comes in or out of the Prime Minister's office and he never requested your help."
"I would quite have to disagree. It was June 28 of last year at 10 p.m. I was asked to attend a late meeting with the Prime Minister. On the way in I was fortunate to meet Mr. Kingsley Shacklebolt, who is undoubtedly a wizard; though I confess I did not know that until after my meeting the Prime Minister. In fact I did not know that there was anything such as magic prior to that meeting. That piece of information has quite changed my life I can assure you."
"Just a second, I remember that meeting. It was right after He Who Must Not be Named started openly attacking muggles. You all remember, the giants had just attacked the West Country and we had Dementors breeding all over the place. We all thought it was strange the Prime Minister would want to talk to you about the weather." Hestia said.
"You have quite a good memory, miss. But you are still quite incorrect that the meeting had anything to do about the weather. Upon entry I noted several inconsistencies that prepared me for a rather special conversation. There were ashes on the antique rug in June and the fireplace hadn't been used for months amongst others. The most striking detail was the clocks on his wall. You may not be aware of this but the time system installed by the Prime Minister is one of the most accurate in the world, good to one part in one million." Randels looked at Hestia for a second.
"So, I've never really looked at it. Garish thing really, not like the nice one next to it" said Hestia.
"Pity, because you would have noticed that it was almost half a second off at that time, and from all reports almost 30 seconds off now, whereas the reproduction of John Harrison's H-4 clock is well within tolerance. That is impossible. Fortunately, British society was given a most excellent quote in dealing with impossibilities by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Not having that available I would have been most incapacitated during the ensuing discussion. The Prime Minister attempted to determine if I had noticed the time disparity, I confirmed by lying about just having arrived from James Harrison's apartment, the clock's maker from the late 1700s. The Prime Minister started sprinkling all sorts of magical adjectives into the conversation, it was almost comic in hindsight, but given the situation probably warranted. I voiced by skepticism and he assured me otherwise. Accepting my new charge I did the same as he. Lastly he provided my with Mr. Harry Potter's name. The rest, as they say, is history."
Hestia Jones and the other wizards were all amazed as they considered the implications. For months how many people have through the Prime Minister's office and they had never realized that watchers were being watched.
By then Tonks returned carrying two laptops, or at least what was left of two laptops. She considered the awkward silence before setting them down and humorously asking "You weren't talking about me were you?"
Dr. Randels noted the others were taken aback by his admissions, so he took the occasion to request that his fellow muggle be released. Moody cautiously examined the military man with his magical eye. He found no weapons and to Moody that meant the military muggle was harmless. Finally assenting he nodded to Hestia to remove the spell that held him.
Deftly catching himself from falling backwards when the magical bonds disappeared, Colonel Franklin rubbed his wrists helping the blood to return to his extremities. "Wondered when you get around to that." Franklin flatly said.
"Quite sorry there, I wanted to make our guests feel at home before adding another player. Everyone, I would like to introduce Colonel Franklin. Colonel Franklin, and please correct me if I am wrong, this is Alaster Moody, Remus Lupin, Nymphodora Tonks, and embarrassing I only know the this young ladies last name, Miss. Jones.
This was the fourth time in fifteen minutes that Moody felt like the muggle had the advantage over them and he was tired of it. Moody and the other members of the Order of the Phoenix hadn't slept for over a day while looking for Harry. The muggle military men that they had made short work of back at the house had each proved to be red herrings. Moody realized after apparating to a dozen bogus drop locations that the muggle's were intentionally misinformed concerning the details of the extrication plan. It was obvious now that the soldiers were intended to be captured to lead his team away from the Harry. Tired and pissed off Moody just wanted answers, not more games. Somehow this muggle had gotten Harry's confidence in such a short period of time that he suspected magic.
"Give me one good reason I shouldn't turn you into a toad and be done with ya?" Moody threatened. At that time the irrepressible Tonks chose to add, "Or a pin cushion, I do a really mean pin cushion."
"How about that Harry, doesn't want you to?", replied Randels.
"Fine, how about a second?", Moody fired back.
"I knew almost all your names, curious?", replied Randels.
"A third!", Moody sniped realizing that he was losing the verbal battle.
"How Col. Franklin and I captured Harry without magic.", replied Randels now stifling a yawn.
" A…" started Moody, but Lupin had thrown up his hands and interjected, "No more! Honestly this is getting us no where. We need to decide what to do. Unfortunately that means we need more information."
Addressing Randels directly, Lupin prompted him by saying "You were saying before we were distracted that the muggle Prime Minister asked you to find out about Voldemort?"
"Quite, Colonel Randels and I have been empowered by the British government to resolve this Voldemort issue before he destroys both our societies, first yours then ours. With any military engagement however we must learn about our enemy, hence my actions concerning Mr. Potter."
That was number five and now all of them were getting peeved at Randels, "Um, I'm not quite sure I caught that, what do you mean 'first yours'.", inquired Hestia slightly before the others.
"Certainly you are aware that Voldemort's actions will probably end the magical world as I have begun to know it within the next 100 to 150 odd years. Projections of this nature are extremely dicey given my admitted lack on knowledge and limited available data, but the climatologists have given us a great many mathematical tools recently that have been adapted for this purpose. I just needed to modify the heuristic models to account for non-linear interactions…" Randels professorially digressing onto a technical detail he found particularly intriguing.
"Oh I can't stand this anymore." said Harry interrupting for the last time. "Dr. Randels, would you like a job?"
"Obviously Colonel Randels will be accompanying me throughout, but that is exactly what I want." Randels said without the slightest hint of negotiation in his voice.
Looking back and forth between Randels and Harry, Moody said, "Ok, so long as he finally shuts up. My head is starting to hurt."
While Dr. Randels only courteously nodded assent at this remark, unseen by the others Colonel Franklin broadly smiled momentarily before regaining his professional military demeanor.