THE ENEMY WITHIN
The White house
Washington D.C., U.S.A.
November 14th
2022 A.D.
Albus and Athena were greeted by over twenty fully armed Secret Service Agents as they touched down on the White House lawn. They kept their guns trained on them even though they would actually do anything. It seemed to be out of habit and training they did it at all, considering that Albus could stop tank shells and redirect bullets a inch away from his uncles head.
They approached the White House quickly, causing the agents to shuffle aside. As always, no one really knew how to act around them and most were only able to stare. They didn't stop a check points or wait for escorts to show them around. Albus had a pretty go idea of the layout of the building and knew where he was going. All that was left was for people to step aside.
The Oval Office was packed with people, mainly Secret Service but also most of the presidents advisers, cabinet members and joint chiefs. They all froze as Albus and Athena entered the room.
"Nice office." Athena said, looking around the room.
"Err, thank you." The President said approaching the two. "Mr. Potter?"
"Mr. President." Albus nodded. "This is Athena Gorski."
"Ah yes, the young lady that almost started World War three." The President said awkwardly.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I was having a bad day."
"Weren't we all." he managed to smile. This was the woman that override their entire defense network in about ten seconds, armed every nuclear warhead in the country and them aimed them at as many major cities as possible. Now she was standing in the Oval Office of the White House, smiling awkwardly at the leader of the free world and complementing the décor. It had certainly been a day of firsts. "You bypassed our entire security system." he really didn't know what else to say.
"Maybe you should get a better one." Athena remarked.
"We'll look into it." he said unamused. "Are you planning on accessing our defenses again?" there was a certain amount of accusation in his voice.
"Are you planning on attacking anymore schools?" she shot back, no longer smiling.
"We had sufficient evidence to suggest that you were behind the Wall Street breach and that you were at Hogwarts." the president said defensively.
"That's exactly what I came to ask you." Albus cut in. "who told you that Athena was at Hogwarts?"
The room went very still.
"In fact, a better question would be, who told you about her in the first place?" Albus was spelling out the fact that the information had been falsified and that someone in that room was responsible.
The President's gaze very slowly moves over to the Secretary of Defense and the Vice President. They remained in the comfortable blue couches near the center of the room, staring back at Albus.
Suddenly they moved, both reaching inside their pockets but Athena was faster. She sent a bolt of Lightning into the chest of the Vice President sending her flying backwards into the bookshelf behind her. The Secretary of Defense managed to pull his wand from his jacket but it suddenly flew out of his hand. Albus flicked his fingers again and caused Ryan to slam into the wall and remain pinned there.
People backed and headed for the exits just as armed Secret Service Agents entered the office, took aim and fired.
Albus's arm shot up, causing the bullets to stop in mid air as the President hit the deck. The agents stopped firing looking horrified that their weapons were useless.
"Don't do that." Albus said simply allowing the floating bullets to fall to the ground.
The panicked President looked to his left to see the dead Vice President's body bubble and change. Soon after, she had transformed into a completely different woman but still wore the same bug eyes stillness all over her face.
"What the hell?!" he breathed.
"Polyjuice Potion. I'm afraid to say that your Vice President and Secretary of Defense are probably dead Mr. President. Unless you kept them alive?" Albus turned to however was impersonating Ryan Philis.
"We didn't need them anymore." he admitted, still being pressed hard against the wall.
"Who in the hell are you?!" The President demanded, picking himself up. The Secret Service Agents scurried over to him, keeping their guns locked on the impostor.
"It doesn't matter, now that I'm compromised, I won't live another twenty four hours!" he sounded like he was almost proud of that fact and even looked quite smug.
"Who do you work for?" Albus asked.
The Impostor suddenly burst into laughter. "You know, it's beautiful! All this time we've been paranoid about security, looking over our shoulders, scared that MI6, CIA, NSA, The Aurors, the Anomalies are watching our every move, listening to our conversations, getting closer and closer to finding us but the truth is, you people didn't even know we existed until now!"
The President still had no real idea what was going on other than the fact that two wizards had been pretending to be two of his closest friends for God knows how long.
"Well, we know now...and I'm always up for a challenge." Albus said unamused.
"The longer you stay silent, the more painful we can make this." Athena added.
"You know nothing about pain! But don't worry, you will!" he still sounded proud of himself. "your brother will make sure of that!"
"Brother?" The President blurted automatically.
"You people have no idea who you're dealing with! You think that the Cleric's, the monsters and the villains you've stopped actually mean anything? This world belongs to him now!" the Impostor laughed.
Albus rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I've heard all this shit before. He's the biggest and baddest, nothing can stop him, blah, blah, blah, tell something interesting for a change!"
"He's already here."
That was news to Albus but he didn't let it faze him. He was all business. "Where?"
"Oh, he'll show himself, once he's ready. Our plans have been set in motion. We were really hoping that you and the Muggles would be busy fighting each other by now but it doesn't matter. His army's almost ready, you can't stop him now."
"I beg to differ."
"You took out the sub!" The President growled angrily.
Again the Impostor laughed. "That was easy. Just change around a few little bit of information on the buoy and then put the idea in your heads that she's responsible," he nodded at Athena. "the rest practically did itself."
"They attacked your economy. That how they were able to get in so easily because they already had the codes." Athena said quickly to the President.
"My, aren't you sharp!" the Impostor rubbed in causing Athena to growl.
"You're going to tell me everything you know." Albus stated.
"Or what? You'll get your cousin to come and read my mind?"
That one struck Albus right in the heart. How could he possibly know about Dominique?
"Ahh, don't be afraid for her Albus! She's in the same boat as all of you! Everything you care about, everything you've fought for...it's all going to end! You can't save any of them! Not your friends, not your family and not your little knocked up, scar faced fuck toy!"
Albus gritted his teeth. "You know what? You're right." he said coldly. "you won't live for another twenty four hours!" he suddenly grabbed the Impostors head and squeezed. There was a terrible crunch as blood sprayed the walls and the body fell to the floor.
Many of the people in the room screamed and looked like they were going to be sick. The President looked away, cringing.
"That's not coming out of the carpet." Athena simply remarked. It wasn't the first time she'd seen that happen.
"What the hell are you doing!? We could have interrogated him!" The President yelled.
"He wasn't going to give up anything else," Albus simply brushed off. "he was too proud of what he'd done. He was happy to die for it." The idea that these people knew almost everything about him and the people he cared about was a scary one. "search their offices, homes, everything. Find out everyone they've talk to or met with!" he ordered.
The President nodded to the Secret Service. They and several others left the office, looking very pleased to be getting away from the dead bodies.
"Athena, signal Lincoln, tell him to get over to the Ministry and get my family out of there now. They had people in the White House, I'm sure they'll have people there as well." Albus said quietly.
She nodded and walked over to the nearest phone, overriding it just by touch.
"Sorry about the mess." Albus said sheepishly.
"When I was in the Middle East I saw a man get blow in half by an Anti-tank mine. I was kinda hoping to get away from that stuff once I took office." the President sighed.
"I said I was sorry."
"What did he mean when he said your brother?"
A pair of Secret Service Agents entered the office and put a white sheet over the headless body. Albus waited until they left before he spoke.
"They seem to think that the guy he was talking about is some how my twin, my opposite. It's a metaphor!"
"Your twin?" this was getting stranger by the minute. "there's something you're not telling me!"
"Look, you're just going to have to trust me for the mom -"
"Trust you?!" the President barked. "You tell me that someone is trying to purposely send us to war with the Wizarding World! Then I find two of them are sitting right inside my fucking office! You," he pointed a shaky finger at Athena who was still on the phone. She glared back at him. "threaten to launch my own nukes against me and then you turn up and detonate this guys head!" he looked deranged. "HOW THE HELL CAN I TRUST ANYONE?!"
"Fine, give me a polygraph!" Albus snapped back.
"What?!"
"A lie detector test!"
"How do I know that even works on you?"
"I'm not a fucking alien!"
The President looked at Albus while pacing his office. He had never expecting in a million years that he would be put in this kind of a situation. He was reaching desperation. That had little if anything to go on and only the threats of a person that had somehow managed to infiltrate the White House as any kind of intelligence.
"I'm on your side." Albus stated clearly as Athena put down the phone.
The President continued to pace as Athena whispered into Al's ear. "Sophia just arrived at the house. Amelia's gone to grab Draco. We need to warn Tannis. If they know about Aurora and your cousin then they must have a spy in Hogwarts."
"I know, but we warn them now and the spy might escape. I want to have a chat with them before they join their friends." Albus nodded towards the sheet covered body.
Finally the President went over to his desk and pushed the intercom. "Get some one from Homeland over here, tell them to bring a polygraph machine with them. Inform the Joint Chiefs I want all access and activation codes change for all civil defense systems. And find somebody to get these goddamn bodies out of my office!" he yelled.
"Smart move." Athena quipped.
"All right Mr. Potter. Say this, whoever he was, wasn't lying. What's going to happen?"
Albus looked him dead in the eye. "War."
Ministry of Magic
London, England
November 14th
2022 A.D.
Hermione was rushing around her office looking through pieces of parchment while several floating memo's were following her around. They actually looked eager to leave but couldn't until she commanded them. She was way more anxious and panicky then usual, probably because the wife of the man that she had an affair with was standing in the same office.
Ginny had arrived just before Hogwarts came under siege. Hermione's attempts to actually communicate with her had been met with cold glares and the statement that Ginny was only there to help her son otherwise she'd quite happily jam a Cleansweep up a certain part of her body.
Since then they had simply worked together in an attempt to get the Muggle military to stand down. They had barely said a word to each other.
Hermione finally found what she was looking for and tapped it with her wand. It folded itself into a small paper airplane and joined the squadron that was were circling just above her head. She flicked her wand again and they all suddenly shot off and out of her open door.
She looked up a her sister-in-law who was standing by the wall with her arms folded. She felt like such a traitor, like she couldn't possibly have been a Gryffindor, a war hero, just a cheating, back-stabbing bitch. She wanted so desperately to say she was sorry but it was simply impossible to find the words. She looked at her with guilt and sorrow washing over her face. Ginny didn't look sympathetic.
"Ginny...I -"
"Don't." Ginny hissed cutting her off. "don't even try and apologies to me!"
"What happened was -" again Hermione was cut off but not by Ginny. Lincoln had just walked straight through the wall next to her.
"Get your shit, we're leaving, now!" he said instantly.
"What? What's happened?" Ginny asked sounding worried.
"Al wants both of you out of the Ministry right now!" he stated forcefully. "you can contact the rest of your family later."
"No, I can't just leave! Hogwarts was just attacked!" Hermione objected in her usual stuffy tone.
"You can come with me or I can drag you out of here! Your choice!" Lincoln growled.
The White house
Washington D.C., U.S.A.
November 14th
2022 A.D.
Albus was sitting in a wide empty room located in the bowls of the White House not far from the kitchens. It was connected to the same tunnel they used to evacuate the President in emergencies. Of course those emergencies had never included a man having his head crushed by a super powered Anomaly right in front of the Presidents face.
He wasn't alone. The President, Athena, the remaining cabniet members and the Joint Chiefs were present along with a whole host of Secret Service and Homelands Security Agents. They were all standing against the back wall, giving Albus a wide birth.
He was sitting in a small steel chair in the process of being hooked up to a briefcase sized machine that was sitting on a marching table in front of him. The Homeland security agent tied a black strap around Albus's left bicep and then attached a strange looking clipper to the tip of his index finger. He also attached some kind of odd looking electrodes on pads to each of Albus's temples then began fiddling around with the various buttons and controls on the machine.
On the machines screen, Albus's heart rate (slightly slower than usual), blood pressure (normal) and brainwaves (highly elevated) were being put up on screen.
Albus had a sneaking suspicion that this machine was more than just a Polygraph and was also meant to take scientific information for the first Anomaly that had agree to this kind of test. This might have been the reason that the room was so quiet. No one was making a sound. If you closed your eyes, you might have thought you were alone.
"These are controlled questions that require the simplest answer you can give." The Homeland Agent stated in a clam and focused voice.
"I know how a Polygraph works." Albus shot back. He wanted this to be over and done with as quickly as possible.
"Very well." the agent said, tweaking a few controls. "we'll begin."
Albus looked quickly from the President to Athena then turned back to the Agent.
"Is your name Albus Severus Potter?" he asked.
"Yes." Albus responded clearly. One word answers were usually used in these kind of tests.
"Are you male?"
"Yes."
Albus knew about these questions from the implant he had received. They would ask you questions when they already knew the correct answers as to gain a pattern of how you respond honestly. Then they'd throw in the questions they actually wanted answered.
"Are you human?"
"No."
The Agent watched the readings for a second before continuing. He didn't seem to react to what he was seeing at all which was standard practice for a Polygraph examination. Despite the fact that these machines were now able to interpret brain activity with heart rate and respiration in order to discover the truth, startling or making the subject nervous could often throw off the results.
"Were you born in England?"
"Yes."
"Please state your age." the Agent said.
"16."
This one caused the President and the other officials in the room to go wide eyed but the examiner continued to remain emotionless.
"Can you identify the infiltrators that were discovered in the Oval Office?"
"No."
"Do you have any knowledge of the terrorist network that they were a part of?"
"No." Albus actually sounded quite pissed off with the last two answers.
"Are you aware of an impending attack against the United States of America?"
"Yes."
" Are you aware of an impending attack against the United Kingdom?"
"Yes."
"Are you aware of an impending attack against any other countries?"
"Yes."
"Which countries?"
Albus looked him in the eye. "All of them."
Again the examiner checked the readings he was getting. Although he was still remaining calm, Albus picked up the distinct smell of sweat emanating from him. He was getting nervous.
"Can you stop it?" this question didn't come from the examiner but from the President himself.
Albus hesitated. "Yes."
A few moments later it was finished. Complicated questions couldn't be asked on those types of machines since the amount of truth in a longer answer is highly flexible, and they had already asked all the important questions.
The President and the other officials were waiting outside the room while Albus, Athena and a few dozen Agents remained inside. After a minute or so, the Homeland Agent that had examined him stepped out of the room and into the tunnel.
"He was telling the truth or at least he believes he is." he stated.
"Are you telling me that the Colossus is a fucking teenager?!" the President blurted in disbelief.
"Yes, sir."
"Could they be immune to that kind of test?" One of the Joint Chiefs asked.
"That's highly doubtful sir. In fact, they seem more susceptible than humans. Since their brain activity is a lot stronger than normal, it's a lot easier to identify the changes for the answers." the agent informed.
"So the fate of the free world now rests in the hands of a super powered kid?"
"Actually sir, the last answer was the only one where the reliability rate dropped below eighty percent."
The President took a breath. "He doesn't know if he can stop this?"
"No sir, he has no answer for that question."
The President thought about this for a second then re-entered the room. Albus was still sitting in the chair but was no longer hooked up to the machine.
"All right Mr. Potter. What can we do to stop this?" he asked.
"Call an emergency meeting for all foreign leaders, keep your military on stand by, with luck, whatever they are planning won't happen for a least a month and a half." he said simply.
"How can you be sure of that?"
"Because it's going to happen on my birthday." Albus sighed.
"Do you have any idea what is actually going to happen?" the President asked.
"Some...It'll start in London."
"How can you know that?" one of the Joint Chiefs asked.
"Because I've seen it." everyone, Athena included, looked at him in confusion. He sighed. It was time to admit the truth. "I'm partially precognitive, I sometimes dream the future."
Out of everyone in the room, Athena looked the most taken back by this. Albus had kept that information from everyone...just like the Cajun.
"You have two abilities?! Why didn't you tell me?" she sounded almost betrayed.
"Because I wasn't sure how reliable my dreams were."
"But now you know they're reliable?" the President skeptically asked.
"Yes."
"How?"
"Because I dreamt that my girlfriend would have half her face blown off by a bunch of genocidal madmen and it came true!" he snapped.
"And what have you seen in your dreams?" the President asked, now actually sounding very interested.
Albus looked away and sighed. He hated this ability. "I...this one was straight...like I had been drugged or something...but from what I could make out...it was just...chaos. Buildings burning, people screaming..." he left out the parts about Aurora and him being stabbed through the shoulder and carried into the air. "It was defiantly London though. The number plates on the cars, the designs of the buildings...I'd know it anywhere."
"Did you get a look at the enemy?"
"Well that doesn't mean it'll start in London. That could have just been you seeing that city affected!"
"It doesn't matter where it starts! It'll effect the whole world!" Albus had jumped out of the chair in frustration. "I have more information but be need to start preparing the world for whats coming!"
The President looked to his staff. "Make the calls." a few of them left the room pulling phones out of there pockets.
Just as they did, two Homeland security agents entered. They rushed over to the President and handed him a piece of paper. "We cross checked everyone that the Vice pres – I mean, the Impostors were in contact with through usual channels. We only came up with one name that didn't match any of their other contacts."
The President looked at the name for a second with furrowed eyebrows. He obviously didn't recognize it. "You know this person?" he handed the piece of paper to Albus.
Albus took one look at the name and suddenly boiling hot hatred began to build inside him. "Yes...I do."