Notes: Follows, favourites, always welcome. I'm happy people still like it!

Yes, early update, just in case, just because I had the idea and time to do so. I know, I updated yesterday, but I pumped this out today and I am terrible at waiting so here it is.

Competitions and Challenges this is entered in: The Long Haul Competition lll.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I only own my idea and character(s) that are far from being perfect human beings, thank you.

THE GAME

HARRY POTTER: THE JOURNEY OF ENIGMA

It was sometime during the hours after he had met the old man that Nikolai had realized he had not explained to the people beyond the fourth wall how his experience at the Ministry went. (Okay, really, fourth wall? What was he in, a movie? Story? Maybe he just wanted to have a flashback. Jesus Christ. Give the boy a break.) And so, this is how the story following the Diagon Alley experience went.

After he had stolen Eirikur's ice cream, and Irina and Mary had finally run out of gossip to talk about, the two families had parted when Lucian and Luminita arrived at Florean's (with, of course, Lucian complaining quietly to Nikolai the unfairness of himself lugging around a large stack of six thick books and a small little girl who kept on trying to wiggle out of the harness Lucian had on his back, while Mary sat around eating ice cream, which led to said female smacking the man upside the head and muttering about 'immature boys' under her breath.) and that was when Mary and Lucian traded children, and they had left the Alley and walked back to The Leaky Caldron.

"We'll be back in about an hour or so." Lucian told Mary as he handed Luminita to his wife. They stood in front of the fireplace with the Floo Powder clutched in Nikolai's hand in an old, dirty flower pot. "So you can make lunch, if you'd like, we should be back by then."

Mary nodded, her brown hair falling into her eyes that she hastily brushed away. "Alright. See you then." She leaned forward and pressed a short kiss on Lucian's cheek (Nikolai miming throwing up in the background, much to his parents' amusement) before waving goodbye and disappearing into the fireplace with Luminita and a charmed bag holding all the books and their purchases.

Lucian and Nikolai waited until Mary and Luminita completely disappeared; before Lucian grabbed Nikolai's hand and led him back out to the Alley's entrance. "Now hold on, this might be a little uncomfortable."

The older man turned on his heel and the two of them left the sight with a small 'Pop!'.

Nikolai's first time apparitioning, or side along appaperating, made him absolutely abhor the way of traveling. He could understand why Harry had hated it, not only was it unpleasant, but he felt like he was being squished through a tube and then pulled down a drain in every direction. He felt like he was being ripped into pieces and somehow floating through the air at the same time and when he and his father had arrived at the Apparition point not one second later, Nikolai had smacked a hand to his mouth and felt as if he was going to throw up.

Lucian didn't look any better, wincing as he patted his son on the back. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

Nikolai shook his head, and threw his hands he managed to shriek out- "Why didn't we use, like, a car or something? Or a bike? Something less likely to make me throw up violently?"

Lucian sighed and shook his head mournfully, helping Nikolai up and waving his wand at the Guard on duty and his Ambassador ID card. "It takes far too long, and many people agree that it is far easier to use a portkey, or Floo Powder, or Apparition, because it takes a second or so to get from one place to the next, and you gradually grow immunity to the motion sickness. Besides, don't some people have motion sickness when they're in a car or aeroplane?"

"Well, yeah, but not to that extent…" Nikolai muttered to himself, before he and his father were cleared by the security guard and welcomed into the Ministry of Magic.

When Nikolai first caught sight of the Ministry, he was slightly disappointed. Oh sure, the lobby could be considered fairly cool. There were fountains and expensive pictures and statues all around the premises. Marble pillars held the room together and skylights filtered in from above, giving the room an almost unearthly look. Several people were milling around, talking quietly to their partners or rushing around, holding importantly looking envelops and papers. It looked like a grand entry way to an important building, which indeed it was.

However, what took away from the beauty (if you could call the extravagance that, it almost seemed tasteless when you got a good look at the real room) was the large statue in the middle.

It was nearly four times Lucian's height (which for a human man, was quite tall at six feet one) and made out of a dull brass-bronze. On the bottom of the statue were the images of centaurs, faeries, goblins, vampires, veelas, ghouls, and other magical creatures, carved into the metal with the same facial expression on all of them- pain. Horror. Hatred.

Above them, the creatures arms stretched out to hold the large ordinate king like chair, were images of humans. Witches and Wizards sat proudly on the throne, almost lifelike as they were captured in midair, playing around the chair like children. A tall man sat in the chair, proud and cruel was his smile as he looked down at the poor creatures that held up his throne, and he had a cold dignity around him that made Nikolai feel like punching him in the face.

They treated the other magical folk like they were animals, and that they were inferior to wizards.

Nikolai clenched his fists, but before he could storm up to the horrible piece of artwork, his father led him away by hand and pulled him to the elevators on their left.

As soon as the door shut closed on them, and they headed up to the ninth floor where Lucian's office was located, Nikolai exploded. His red eyes were bright and wild as he nearly yelled at his father, "Who's idea was it to put that statue there!?"

Lucian almost looked confused- this wasn't the first time Nikolai had been to the Ministry, the boy had suddenly remembered, and he certainly was not so passionate about the statue or their travel methods before- before he said honestly, "The Minister put it in. It caused quite the controversy when people first saw it. There were a few revolts, but the Minister calmed them before they reached the public news." His lips curled into a sneer as he thought about the statue. "There is a reason why no magical creature is welcomed in the Ministry of Magic, not that they would like to step inside while people running the place have pieces like that in the front entry way."

He shook his head, and the elevator dinged open. Lucian and Nikolai stepped out of the elevator and onto the ninth floor, which was quiet since it was the off day for most of the workers at the Ministry.

Lucian, and his fellow Ambassadors, were the only people on the very large floor, but the floor was mostly empty since the British Ministry had cut off most of its contacts with the other magical parts of the nations, only really keeping in contact with the very, very, very magical nations, the ones who were known for their folk lore, such as the Scandinavian countries, France, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Japan, Haiti, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and such others.

While it might seem fairly long (and often Nikolai had trouble remembering which nations were part of the treaty that stuck them together) the list was fairly short in comparison to the one, say, the United States and Canada had. They had good contacts with all the magical parts of the nations, never mind the fact if there was a central wizarding world during the beginning of its formation or whether it was because witches and wizards had migrated there.

On another note, the Ambassadors to Britain usually gathered together for world meetings twice every year, and it was customary to bring your children to the event to brag about how brilliant they were at magic. That was where Nikolai was aquatinted with Eiríkur, the Icelandic representative's son, where he made an immediate dislike to the Norwegian representive son, the ever cold and stoic Lukas who for some reason always seemed to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and had a dislike for Nikolai's 'pranks', and made general friends with Marie and Peren, the French ambassador's daughters, and other people like Leo, Hasan, Kagome, Bronte, et cetera.

But that was enough of that, Nikolai would spend more time explaining that at a later time since Lucian had just arrived at his spacious corner office and was fiddling with the key, when a loud yell startled the two of them.

"Здравствуйте, друзья!"

If Nikolai didn't understand that bit of Russian he would have been terrified of the yell that said "HELLO FRIENDS!".