A/N – I don't own Harry Potter or Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
Chapter 2
Mid-Childa – Main TSAB Office, Cranagan
0068 (July 17th, 1991 - Earth Calendar)
1400 Hours
Lindy Harlaown sat uncomfortably around the oval meeting table in the TSAB Main Office. As she had told Graham, she had relayed the information to the monitoring team of Area 51; the area that Un-Administered world 97 and 6 other worlds resided in. As per protocol, they had immediately reported it to Main Office and now she was sitting in a meeting room with Gil Graham and his familiars, Admiral Leti, Admiral Leone Phils, Admiral Midget Crowbel and Librarian Yuuno Scrya to discuss the TSAB's next step.
Stepping forward with his familiars, Graham began to recount what he had told Lindy about what the twins had overheard. Once he had finished, Yuuno stood up, holding is note pad that he had filled while Graham had been talking.
"Okay. That was a lot of very useful information. To summarize the most important parts it's clear that we have an organized magical community on Earth, possibly world wide, but confirmed in Europe. It has its own government, law enforcement, researchers and possibly more. Its been around long enough that it has an established system with its own history. It is unknown if they are space faring, but that is unlikely as we have been monitoring Earth heavily for the past 3 years. In other words, we have a completely isolated group of magic users that even most of the local Earth inhabitants have no knowledge of."
After Yuuno finished, there was silence in the room. It was a very different experience to find a magical society on a known world. Usually, if a new magical society was discovered, it was when they discovered the world as well.
"This is certainly unexpected, and a bit concerning." Admiral Crowbel mused. "But what should we do about it? Direct interference on an Un-Administered world is not permitted."
"That certainly complicates things, but we need to know more about this magical community on UA-97. The presences of a magical community complicates the status of UA-97 as an un-administered world, and the isolation makes this world particularly difficult. Why are they so isolated? How long have they been isolated? How powerful are they? Are they more advanced than the other inhabitants of UA-97? These are the kind of questions that must be answered before any sort of diplomatic action can happen." Admiral Phils stated.
"I agree. There are too many unknown factors right now to take any drastic actions. Should this society prove to be capable, we may have to make UA-97 an administered world. I am particularly concerned about their secrecy." Crowbel responded.
Lindy, who had been silent since the meeting started, suddenly spoke out. "All this sounds like we need a reconnaissance mission."
"Yes. That was exactly what I was thinking Admiral Lindy." Responded Phils, who then looked to Crowbel for confirmation.
Crowbel nodded as she responded, "I'm glad that we are all in agreement. But how to do it? We have no idea where this Ministry is, nor do we know any other entry points besides a general area."
The room was quite again as the occupants thought of the information they had and how to apply it to an information reconnaissance mission.
"We could send a small unit to tail those 'muggleborns' when they meet up with Aurora Sinistra. That would give us knowledge of an entry point to the community and since it's most likely a shopping area, a good place to buy texts to provide more information." Lindy suggested.
Yuuno, Crowbel and Graham were nodding in agreement, but Phils still seemed to be deep in thought. Looking around the table, he took a deep breath before starting.
"I believe we need to go further than that. What Admiral Harlaown suggested is in fact the perfect starting point. But what if we can't re-enter this 'Diagon Alley' after that day? If it can only be accessed by one of these 'wizards'? We would lose our only entry point and would be reduced to passive observation again. We need to get a team integrated into the community in order to get any substantial information."
"But we would never fit into society. We don't have information on how to act or who's important?" Questioned Lindy.
"I know! And neither do these muggleborn wizards. They go in with the same information we have and eventually learn of the magical community."
"But what does that have to do with us? They'll never believe that a random muggleborn finally gets to Diagon Alley, but had never attended Hogwarts or any of the other schools mentioned. Any muggleborn witch or wizard that reaches adulthood would simply be a non-magical person who had odd things happen to them."
"Then we don't send an adult agent. Don't we currently have two Earth born mages who are 11? And one who has spent enough time on Earth to be considered from Earth?"
"Are you suggesting that we send Nanoha Takamachi, Hayate Yagami and Fate? They're just kids! Nanoha was just given permission to resume regular duties a few months ago!"
"The fact that they are kids are the reason why I'm suggesting them! They are at the perfect age to be considered students at Hogwarts! And don't try suggesting that they aren't cut out for this kind of thing. They're some of the strongest mages I've ever seen!"
"Being able to blow stuff up and fly around fighting is much different than a long-term reconnaissance mission!"
"Even better! As far as we know, it's low risk and great experience for them. It would look great on their records. See reason Admiral Harlaown! We have a great opportunity here to get valuable information. We might not have another chance like this!"
"But -!"
"Enough Admiral Harlaown." Crowbel interrupted. "Admiral Phils has made a great point. Reconnaissance missions are generally low risk, and will provide a very different experience for the mages. So far, their only experience is combat and scouting, it will be interesting for them to do something new. However, I do not believe Yagami will be available for this mission. She has just finished her probation period and has applied for officer training. I believe she begins her training here in a few months and would likely be upset at being delayed by at least a year. She's a very ambitious child and seems to have a path planned here. Private Takamachi and Harlaown will be the agents assigned to this mission."
"Yes Admiral." Lindy said reluctantly. As much as she didn't want Fate or Nanoha to go on this mission, Phils had some good points. "But how are we going to insert them? We can't just show up at the meeting point. From they way that Sinistra explained things, she was the one introducing the muggleborns to the magical world."
"Yes, that is a problem. We should scout out the area and see if we can find anything unusual around the meeting area." Phils said with a frown.
"Excellent. We have the beginning of a plan. Send a security team of mages with the scouting group. Label it as high priority, time is against us at the moment." Crowbel commanded.
Mid-Childa – Main TSAB Office, Cranagan
0068 (July 22th, 1991 - Earth Calendar)
0900 Hours
"What has the scouting team found?" Crowbel asked as the team, minus Yuuno and Graham, reconvened five days after the previous meeting.
"Not much." Admitted Phils. "Only a suspicious pub. To anyone on the team without magic it was just a rundown building of no particular note. Non-mages would also suddenly remember that they had an appointment and attempt to leave, and only stopped when they were further away from the building and questioned by the mages. It also had a particular affect for the mages. They reported that while it appeared as a rundown building at first, it would occasionally flicker."
"Flicker?" Asked Lindy.
"Yes. Like a bad quality video message. And the more the mages concentrated on it, the more it flickered. They eventually managed to guess that it was a pub called something along the lines of 'The Leak Cauld'. I'm assuming they have some sort of illusion and deflection magic that prevents non-magical people from noticing or approaching it."
"Interesting. I believe we could use that to our advantage." Lindy said, tapping her fingers on her chin.
"How so?"
"I can take Nanoha and Fate to Charing Cross Rd. before the scheduled time. Nanoha and Fate, pretending to have no idea about the existence of magic, notice that the building flickers. We go investigate. Us coming into the pub should draw a lot of attention. Three non-magical people entering a pub should be impossible to them, so we'd end up talking to someone who knows about the magical world. I believe they'd want to figure out how two 11-year-old girls were able to see the illusion. Maybe we'd even be able to tag along with the muggleborns. We'd contact the Headmaster of Hogwarts and ask to be enrolled in Hogwarts." Lindy explained.
"But why wouldn't you have been contacted like the other muggleborns?" Crowbel asked, noticing a rather large gap in the story.
"We could be vacationing in London, but are actually from Japan. We should keep to the truth as much as possible. It'll be easier for Nanoha and Fate to remember the cover story. We'll just have to hope that Hogwarts accepts international students." Lindy responded, already starting to think up the exact cover story that will be used.
"Excellent!" Exclaimed Crowbel. "Let's work out more of the details before we call Takamachi and Harlaown here for briefing."
Mid-Childa – Main TSAB Office, Cranagan
0068 (August 1st, 1991 - Earth Calendar)
0900 Hours
Nine days later, Nanoha and Fate were patiently waiting to be briefed on their newest mission. Both had been between missions and had been enjoying the summer before they returned to school in the fall.
Entering the room, Lindy placed the mission folder on the table before looking at the two privates.
"Recently we have discovered that Earth has a secret magical society. We don't know how large it is or how powerful; only that it's organized and has been around for a while. We also have very little knowledge of where they are and how to access them." Lindy paused, looking over the two girls. They were predictably shocked, but remained quiet and focused on what they were being told. "We do know that they have a method of finding and contacting non-magical people of Earth that we will be exploiting. We will be infiltrating their society to gather intelligence so that we can better classify them and act accordingly. Any questions so far?"
"Why are we being told this? Shouldn't a trained infiltration squad be handling this?" Fate asked quietly.
"In most cases, yes, they would. However, the one entrance we found was when they introduce new, previously thought to be non-magical, students to the society before they attend a magic school they call Hogwarts. Our mission, which could possibly last 7 years, is to infiltrate that group. In this society, magical education apparently starts at 11 years of age. Your age."
"That is why you have been chosen for this mission." Lindy continued. "You are both familiar with Earth's culture, have a significant amount of experience to be able to escape any dangerous situations and are of the perfect age to perform this mission. Do either of you have any issues so far?"
Fate immediately shook her head, but Nanoha hesitated. What would her family think of a 7-year long mission? Noticing her unease, Lindy spoke up.
"This isn't a no contact mission Nanoha. You should be able to call your family every so often, and you'll be attending a school. Once we get more information about Hogwarts, we'll be able to tell when you'd be able to see your family. It is a school after all – they probably have Christmas and summer breaks when you'd be able to return home. If it'd make you feel better, I'll come down with you to explain the general mission details. If you decide to do the mission, I can explain it to your family while you pack."
Looking relieved, Nanoha nodded. She hated keeping secrets from her family. When she had first met Yuuno, it had saddened her greatly knowing that she was keeping secrets and lying. Now that she knew her family would be aware of what she was doing, it made her much more relaxed.
"Excellent!" Lindy exclaimed. "Now the specific mission details. As you now know, the first part will be strictly attempting to infiltrate the magical community while gathering as much information as possible. Hopefully we'll be able to get you two into Hogwarts, but even if we only access Diagon Alley the mission will still be considered a success."
Lindy paused to display the mission details on the holo-screen. "Our plan to access Diagon Alley is to enter a building known to us as 'The Leak Cauld'. We will be posing as tourists. The back-story is that you two did extremely well in school, and to celebrate, I brought my daughter and her best friend on vacation to London for a week. We wanted to make your back-story as close to the truth as possible and therefore you will use your real names and histories. Except, of course, the TSAB or anything related to it cannot be mentioned."
"Are we going to have to come up with how Fate and I met?" Nanoha questioned.
"We'll just say that when Fate moved to Uminari, you two became instant friends when you offered to show her around. It's easy to remember, and not an uncommon occurrence." Lindy paused, waiting to see if Fate or Nanoha had any more remarks. When neither spoke, she continued. "Back to the mission. We will be wandering around Charing Cross Rd on August 12 at around 1145 hours local time to try to enter the suspicious building. We have reports that the building flickers when being focused on by a mage, so it's likely that there's an illusion spell over it. It shouldn't be hard to locate."
"The 'muggleborn' witches and wizard will be arriving shortly after us, and we are hoping to join them in their tour of Diagon Alley. A Hogwarts professor is giving the tour, so hopefully we'll be able to make contact with the school there. Our story for why we were able to enter the building, since we are assuming that the illusion spell is to prevent non-magical from entering, is that the two of you noticed the building flickering and insisted that we check it out, despite my protests that it's just an old, run down building."
"We have very little information about the magical community, so we'll have to rely a lot on luck and our ability to react to unexpected situations. Staying calm during the mission will be essential, as well as keeping to your cover story. The magical community must not know it is being observed by the TSAB. We want to know all we can before any other actions, such as contacting the Ministry of Magic, will be taken. Also, please note that this is a peaceful mission, so avoid aggressive confrontations when possible and only activate your devices in emergencies. Understood?"
"Yes ma'am!" Nanoha and Fate replied back.
"Good. Now, we'll be returning you both to Earth to pack in a few hours. Fate, you'll go straight home then meet me at Nanoha's place once you're finished. Nanoha, I'll come with you to explain the mission to your family while you pack. Once we have everything, we'll be transported to the Arthra. For the next 10 days you will be preparing for the mission. A reconnaissance instructor will be joining us and giving you two a crash course in reconnaissance missions."
A/N – So the second chapter! I've played around a bit with the Nanoha timeline. Fate and Nanoha meet when they're 8 instead of 9. Why? Because I wanted Nanoha's major injury to happen before Hogwarts. But in canon, it happens when she's about 11, which is not enough recover time between the injury and the start of Hogwarts, so now it happened about a year ago. Also, things happen like a decade earlier than in Nanoha just to coincide with the Hogwarts timeline.
Also, I welcome constructive criticism with open arms! Does something not make sense? Are my sentences weird? Does something sound really forced (Like the first section... eerg)? Did I get something wrong? Missing words or bad grammar? Let me know and I'll fix it. And suggestions to improve my writing is also encouraged! And hopefully I'll have the next chapter out in a week or two, but I'm quite busy with life, and unfortunately a lot of things take priority before this story….
