CHAPTER 6: PEOPLE OF THE MIST:

Chuyat was back to the stone circle. His trip to Hogwarts lasted less then an hour and half, so night was still covering the dusty plain. He quickly turned eastwards and begun running. In the middle of his run, his form blurred and he became a fourlegged , sleek coyote, dark fur covering his body. He accelerated in his animagus form considerably, swallowing the miles with ease. It was safer to travel like this, as animagus, he was undetectable to possible trackers. And frankly, he enjoyed traveling as coyote, world was much more interesting to observe with his now, much sharper senses.

After a while he reached a certain point, only recognizable to him,and he took his wand and begun cating spells. After a few minutes he seemed to grow satisfied,and simply stepped forward, vanishing without trace.He stepped into the hidden settlement, obviously well protected . It was actually a magically hidden valley, where people miled about and children laughed and played .It was a very different scene from the place where Chuyat stood a moment before. It was a day there, green grass and trees around, blue sky dotted with puffy clouds, birds flying around singing their songs. There were horses around, cows and buffaloes, and some magical animals as well, not any Hagrid would be intersted in, they were harmless. It was place hidden from the rest of the world for the last thousand years, although village would appear from time to time, so legends and stories remained among the nonmagical Indian tribes that traded with them. So they came to be known in those stories as the People of the Mist, because whenever they became visible, mist would cover them from full disclosure.

People of the Mist had several reasons to contact outside world, mainly scouring the entire North America for talented young people to bring them in the village to learn magic and keep the village alive. New people brought new ways of life and ideas, and new children. So some of them would leave back to the outside world, as shamans and healers, only to send their cildren back, or those they took on sa students. They also served to observe the world and keep track of important matters outside. People of the Mist were never totally isolated from the outside world, it would serve no purpose to do so.

But in the last two hundred years they never uncovered themselves, only using their agents outside to monitor changes and preform necessary tasks. One of those was infiltration of new wizards who came from the lands beyond the great ocean, who formed their own hidden society among American muggles. So People gained new knowledge of magic, yet stayed under the radar of American ministry of magic and their magic schools, which they attended, pretending to be muggleborn wizards, it was perfect cover. No Dark Wizard ever found them, because they never even knew of their existence.

They lived in their own world, one of the last remains of the time that was forgotten. And Chuyat was one of them. He moved at brisk pace, among the tents that made the settlements in the valley. They were magically constructed to be bigger on the inside, just like those tents at the world cup during the Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts, it was one of the inventions learned from the outsiders. Most inhabitants were natives, members of the now nearly extinct indian race, but there were a small number of ordinary folk, some negroes, and some caucasians, who joined them over the centuries. People of the Mist were not racial purists, nor they shared the idea of purebloods being superior to the muggleborn wizards, and they appreciated the fact that those ideas didn't have a firm hold even among the outside wizard society on the american continent. It certainly would be a trouble for their people out there.

Soon Chuyat reached small clearing between the settlements where a simple wooden pole was stuck in the ground. It was about six feet tall and three feet wide with many carvings on the surface. The biggest was the picture of the eagle eye, size of a childs head, and at the same height as Chuyat's shoulders. He immediately put his hand on it and it started to glow. The glow begun spreading over his entire form and soon he dissapeared in an intense flash of light. Next moment he was in the huge cavern, it's ceiling reaching about hundred feet above, and width was impossible to determine because of the shadows that permeated most of it's volume.Chuyat knew it was connected to many other caves, by the system of tunnels and magical portals, but this was the seat of power and wisdom of his people. This cave was the meeting place of The Elders , the wisest and strongest men and women who led their people because they were chosen to do so. The Elders weren't rulers, rather they greatly reminded of the managers in the companies who made things go smoothly. It was a very simple term to describe them, but suitable. Most important thing was that they could communicate with the spirits and have visions that allowed them to see beyond the visible, thus in their opinion to connect to the spirit of the world which was their sacred guide in their lives, never leading them astray. Their number varied over the years, but it was never less than six or more than eighteen. But six were always present to keep things running while full assembly was required only to decide things that mean life and death for their people.

When Chuyat appeared, there were only seven of them sitting around the fire, that always burned, representing their constant vigilance, a light of understanding in the vastness of ignorance. They had no names when acting as Elders, so despite knowing identities of each other, they never spoke of themselves in the first person neither they adressed each other individually. They acted as a group,as a whole. So when Chuyat approached, they just watched him rising his palms at the level of his shoulders and towards them.

" Greetings honored Elders, I've returned from my journey and I'm bringing you important news." , he spoke loudly and clearly, his voice resonating of the nearby walls.

First Elder on the left chose to respond. " And many greetings to you Chuyat. What knews do you bring before us? " He was an old man, dressed in leather pants only, blue lines on his face, from each eye one to the midle of his cheeks.

" I have been summoned by Albus Dumbledore to vist Hogwarts. He begged me to come to see what happened to his student, the famous Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter." That made all of them to look sharply at him, he had their complete and undivided attention. It wasn't comfortable, but he held their gazes, as was expected from one of their trusted operatives. He told the the tale of the fight at the British ministry, of Prophecy lost and finally of Harry Potter, who was in spirit realm, exposed an helpless.

The next elder who spoke was a woman, middle aged, dark hair and brown eyes, plump. " You want us to allow the strenghtening ritual to be preformed and that we seek his spirit and help him back. Not unreasonable request, for we had begun to worry about their Dark Lord, who may come to endanger our people if he wins his war there. But you could preform these rites yourself , you certainly have the ability and our trust, for a long time. Did you not help Dumbledore on your own against Grindenwald, did you?"

That statement brought sheepish smile on Chuyat's face, " Yes, but this time it's different. During my scan of the boy, I noticed certain irregularities, that all of the operatives of my rank were informd of to report immediately to this council."

Her eyes widened in astonishment, an incredible breach of protocol that served to show how important this information was. One of the Elders rose and left the cave, only to return informing the that full assembly will happen within an few moments. Soon the new Elders started coming, obviously by their own portkeys. Ten minutes passed, and all twelve Elders were there. This century there were only so much of them, because there were no more suitable candidates to fill the remaining six positions.

Chuyat repeated his findings , ending the speech with the same statement as before, " I have scanned the boy and found those irregularities. But I'd like to know what do they mean, if it is possible."

One of the Elders who came later spoke. He was ancient in his appearance, older than Dumbledore, for he used to know Nicholas Flamel, who had used his Stone to keep him young, while they traveled this world for meny years. He was about two hundred and fifty, and had seen many things, and was the one who dicovered this mystery Chuyat stumbled upon. It must have been fate that Dumbledore was also friend of Flamel.

" Yes, you may know, as we decreed to inform any agent that makes contact with the person who had those irregularities. We managed to find only three so far, in the last century and half. I was the first. It happened around hundred and fifty years ago when I joined one of the small tribes as shaman. They found a man in the woods, bleeding, robbed, only armed with sword. We followed the trail he left behind and discovered several men dead, some by sword some with broken heads. He fought well, but they had guns, and so they won. Survivors took his belongings leaving their comrades to rot, cowards. Hunters brought him to me and I managed to heal him, with no magic. I didn't want to expose the extent of my powers yet. The man recovered quickly, only three days passed an he was on his feet, by the end of week he was fully healed. It was the first thing that made me curious, so I managed to scan him under the pretense of checking his health. He had no scars at all, and he should have. Another sign.

For some reason he joined their tribe, became one of them,and he was feared and loved by them. His strength was monstruous, I saw him lift a horse or throw a man singlehandedly into the tree, among the branches. He once killed a full grown bear with bare hands. He could run like a horse, jump from great heights, and certanly he was a warrior of great cunnung and skill. Those were happy days, and I befriended him, his name was Cordell. During the years he showed certain resistance to magic, especially mind arts, and I found out he could not remember who he really was, or where did he come from. That much he was willing to share. He wasn't aware of his magic powers, that wer great but hidden deep within, and was different from mine, ours. It did not seem human, at least not fully.He was different, yet not. His blood run red like ours, but he healed too well. But one day he left, and after that I did not think I would see him ever again.

But thirty years later I saw him in one of the muggle towns, he was trader, but he did not look a day older. I confirmed his identity magically. He didn't recognize me, I have altered my appearance. And ever since then we managed to track him from time to time, he traveled far and we didn't have so many agents to follow him so there were many gaps. Next sighting was in the state of New York, 1970. He had a car accident, someone shot his tire. He was severely injured, internally and had broken both legs in several places. Someone was paying for his care at the private clinic, but he walked out of there after two weeks, like nothing happened. He visited his supposed sister, Mrs. Evelyn Flaumel. Deeper investigation into her past has shown no results, no visible money trail, yet she was rich. But in France our people found trail of Cordell in the 18th century, same name, he posed as minor noble. That as first proof of his unnatural longievity, over three centuries old man-or was he something else. So in New York he was joined by a short fellow named Random, who visited Mrs. Flaumel on a few occasions in the past, calling her sister and holding parties at her home. He was hunted by some men, only we took memories of the house maid, their bodies were not human, although she didn't see them clearly, but¸their hands were adorned with spikes.

Next day after the fight with mysterious attackers, Cordell and Random vanished without trace, not even magic could find them. Seven years later, Cordell, or rather Carl Corey now, appeared out of nowhere, stabbed in the stomach, in his old house. His friend and attorney Bill Roth took him to hospital, and for the first time he displayed some of his hidden power, he vanished from his room right in the front of the nurse who claimed he became two dimensional and disappeared in a rainbow. And ever since he didn't come back. "

Chuyat was confused, "So how does Harry Potter fit into this?"

" Cordell lived after the World War II in London, as an intelligence agent for US. Knowing who were Potter's parents we can safely assume he was his grandfather, and father of Lily Potter, who was very powerful witch. And they all share same eyes.

But I digress, we kept watching Mr. Roth who was our last link to Cordell. And it paid off.

Few years later, a new individual came to him, callinfg himself Merle Corey and he started the college studyng computers. He was excellent student, olympic class runner, and his friends were Lucas Raynard, and Gail Lampoon and his girlfriend was

Julia Barnes. He never showed any magical powers, but neither he was in the situaton where he needed them, except for the annual atempts on his life, every April 30 in seven years he was there. But his friend Lucas, showed an amazing display of strength during his fight with some bikers, he lifted one of their motorcycles and threw it at them, not an easy thing when the bike is over 500 pounds in weight. Merle Corey was obviously more careful, but strange things occured around him . Mrs. Barnes broke up with him later and started searching for teachers about magic, finally meeting some charlatan named Victor Melman, whom we knew of before this, he was lifelong enthusiast with no power. But it seems he got her attention, and later we detected magic occuring in his place. Then Mr. Corey found his former girlfriend dead, and wanished from her apartment.

Our team cleaned after him, finding her killed, and obviously the culprit was some strange animal, that was also dead, killed by Mr. Corey. Further investigation into the nature of the beast was most fruitfull, it was not from our world, and was not magical creature. Where did it come from, that was the question. In the apartment we found traces of raw magic, at the lower end of one wall, probably remains of the portal. was most likely taken through it. A few days later he appeared in the nearby alley, drove in the car to the place of Mr. Melman and dissapeared again, only to come back out of nowhere to see that place was burnt down. Mr. Melman was nowhere to be found after their encounter. Now we started to fear Mr. Corey, people died around him, or wanished without trace.

His next stop was Albuqurque, where he met a man named Dan Martinez, who ended dying soon, last seen driving with him in the car. Later examination of his body was terrifying, there was residue of demonic like posession. We backtracked all of his associates , and Mrs.Lampoon was examined and obliviated, but same thing happened to her, although she was fine – obviously the entity left her to follow Mr. Corey or Mr. Raynard.

Last time we saw Mr. Corey was in the presence of Mr. Bill Roth, his fathers friend. We did not see him afterwards, and about year later Mr.Roth left with his wife ,vanishing from the face of this world. We still can't find him. The only person connected to them is Mrs. Evelyn Flaumel, currently she lives in Las Vegas, as very rich woman, now she calls herself Flora Amberson. Interesting is the fact, that she still looks young, despite being at least fifty. But luck abandoned her a year ago, she had a fight with some would be rapist who ended with broken jaw and arm, while she had shallow knife wound. We managed to seize the knife, for blood sample. Her blood was mostly human, but same energy signature was present as with Mr. Cordell. It was easy to determine that they were indeed related, we had his bloodsamples from previous hospital visits. Ordinary investigation would show nothing amiss, just a rare bloodtype, but magic tests were conclusive on one fact, if their blood was given to another human, he would die. "

It was a lot to take in for Chuyat who listened carefully. " That means she is related to Harry Potter. We could let her know of this fact."

" Maybe, but our proof isn't solid yet. You see, we obviously have strange people living for centuries, with unkown agenda and abilities. Our safety comes first, you understand that Chuyat. They look like us, but they are not human, or at least they are partially human. Mr.Potter may be like them, but who knows what that means to them, maybe she wouldn't care. Certainly she would not be glad to find out she is watched. We must tread carefully. First you will bring Mr. Potter and try to help him. If it works we will teach him to control his mind especilally since he will know of us . "

" I understand, we will train him to protect his thoughts and maybe other things. He will in return protect our secret. And we will have opportunity to examine him to confirm his connection to Mrs. Flaumel and it will give us opportunity to study his body and magic. It will not harm him, yet it will mean a grat deal to us. But what of Dumbledore, he will certainly be curious? "

" He owes us, and you will convince him of necessity of his training with us. Promise him we will return him on time for his return to Hogwarts. We will see how things go when he comes to us."

The rest of Elders did not argue, obviously liking this course of action. A little risk, and potential gain might be enormous. Dumbledore would certainly jump to take their offer. Potter would be trained and protected, and he would learn more about them, his curiosity was too great for him to resist.

After that Chuyat bowed respectfully, turned around and left the cave by the same way he came. He had a job to do. And mystery to solve. He was excited for the first time in many years.