Chapter Two: "Salem, we have a problem . . . ."
Agent Lockhart came to Trainee Stephens' side just in time to see a third contact appear on the enchanted parchment map. "Definitely Vanishing Cabinet lore, Stephens," said Agent Lockhart. "But one that uses a single terminal instead of the normal two. I've only read about this kind of magic in books . . . ."
"Someone likes to live dangerously, Ma'am," said Tabitha. "I saw a two-terminal Vanishing Cabinet demonstrated when I was at Hogwarts. Professor McGonagle said that they were developed in the 16th Century because the single-terminal kind was not safe."
Agent Lockhart raised an eyebrow and made a very unladylike snort. "You had to go to a Prep School to learn that, Stephens?"
Juliet Lockhart had been home-schooled in magic, unlike her young trainee who had graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry a few months earlier. She kidded Tabitha about their different educational backgrounds, but she was also aware that if she had been Tabitha's age now, she would never have been allowed to join the FBS without formal magical education, which was not required when she first joined in the late 1940's.
Agent Lockhart said, "Your Professors say anything else about single-terminal vanishing cabinets, Trainee Stephens?"
Tabitha nodded. "Professor McGonagle also said that a single-terminal vanishing cabinet had to "make its own portal at the other end." This could be dangerous because the user would only have a general idea of where they would end up. Not to mention that the formation of the "other end" would be very easy for other wizards and witches to detect; just like we did, now."
"Very good, Stephens," said Agent Lockhart with an approving nod. She studied the information appearing on the parchment at her desk. "Three contacts in all. The first one brought over something from the Enchanted Realms in the forty to sixty pound range. The second contact looks like a failed return attempt. And the one just now brought over something in the eight to twelve pound range."
Agent Lockhart shook her head. During her time with the FBS, she had seen dozens of incursions from the Enchanted Realms, but there was something about this one that didn't seem, well, normal. (Or, rather, what passed for "normal" in her line of work.) Even for a single-terminal vanishing cabinet, there was way more magic used than should have been.
"What do you think came through, Ma'am?"
"I have no idea, Preppie," said Agent Lockhart dryly, though softening her jape with a wan smile. "I'll get on the phone and give Salem our report. They'll send out a team of Aurors to investigate and then I'll keep watch while you have your dinner . . . ."
Agent Lockhart picked up the receiver from the desk phone; an older, rotary dial model, and started to dial FBS Headquarters in Salem, Massachusetts. "But I'll bet ten galleons that they already know about it in Salem, considering the amount of magic used in these incursions. I'll just . . . ."
Agent Lockhart dropped the receiver as she and Tabitha watched a black dot appear on the map showing the coast of Maine. The dot rapidly expanded outward until the entire map went completely black, and then the parchment "flickered" (for lack of a better term,) and became as blank as though it were a spotless, fresh sheet. The witches looked around them. Every parchment in the room that had been enchanted to detect anomalous magic and provide information about it had gone black before turning into a blank sheet as well.
Agent Lockhart put the phone to her ear and heard the rapid beeping of an off-the-hook phone. She then pressed the button on the cradle, let it up, and was relieved to hear a dial tone. She set the phone back on the cradle, nodded to Tabitha, and said, "Go into the living room. Turn on the television and the radio. Check all channels and see if the muggles noticed anything . . . unusual. I'll call Salem. It looks like we just had a fourth incursion. And whatever it was, it was powerful enough to completely blow out our ability to detect anomalous magic."
Tabitha did as she was told and came back a few moments later. "Ma'am, all muggle channels are broadcasting normally on the TV and the radio, but there is nothing on the Wizarding Wireless Network station in Collinsport, Maine . . . ."
Agent Lockhart barely heard her trainee's report. Instead, her attention was focused on a faint image attempting to form in the center of the blank parchments on the walls.
Tabitha noticed it as well. "Ma'am, I think the maps are trying to restore themselves."
"Not just the maps," said Agent Lockhart as she handed Tabitha a couple of parchment sheets from the desk in front of her. "Look. Every piece of enchanted parchment in the room looks like it is doing the same thing - forming the same image. But I don't think the map is restoring itself . . . ."
A few moments later, Agent Lockhart was proven right as the black shapes congealed into a single line that then began to form individual words. When the words solidified, the two witches read them, and noticed that the same fourteen words had appeared on the center of every parchment in the room:
"Somewhere horrible! Absolutely horrible! A place where the only happy ending... will be mine!"
Agent Lockhart dialed the number for FBS HQ, and said in a tight voice, "Salem, we have a problem. We have just detected what has to be the largest incursion from the Enchanted Realms in recorded history." She then gave her report, listened to the brief reply and said, "Understood, sir. We'll begin making calls right away," then hung up the phone.
"They detected the Incursion in Salem, alright, Tabitha," said Agent Lockhart, who suddenly looked ten years older. "And in New Orleans. And clear around the world. The FBS is on the line with other Bureaus and Ministries of Magic and even with the White Council. They are currently trying to reach the Sorcerer Supreme even as we speak.
"They also said that other MADS Network stations' enchanted maps within 50 miles of the Incursion are displaying the same message. And Salem confirms that the WWN station in Collinsport has been knocked out by whatever it was that came through from the Enchanted Realms. Kind of like what an electromagnetic pulse from an atomic bomb would do to muggle radio and television . . . .
"But so far, the Muggle world has not detected anything. Our supervisor stated that both the Muggle National Security Agency and S.H.I.E.L.D. have been notified and are currently looking into it, but so far, their satellites have not detected anything anomalous on the Eastern Seaboard." Agent Lockhart went over to a file cabinet and removed a thin folder.
"There's more. The FBS has issued an Emergency Evacuation Order for all wizards and witches living within two hundred miles of the Incursion's epicenter. We need to call the names on these lists and ask them to call the names on their lists. Telephones, C. B.'s and Short Waive Radios only! Absolutely no mirrors or other magical means of communication! Tell them that they need to leave Maine as quickly as possible, but they are NOT to apparate, use brooms or carpets or floo hearths. No magic of any kind until they are at least 100 miles from the Incursion's epicenter."
Tabitha said, "Ma'am, the people that I'm calling will want to know why they can't use any magic to leave Maine! What should I tell them?" Tabitha imagined the extra burden a prohibition on magic use would make for the families ordered to evacuate Maine at such short notice. They would have to grab their belongings by hand, and if their cars were low on gas, they would not be able to transfigure water into gasoline for the trip.
"Tell them that whatever it was that came through from the Enchanted Realms set-off every alarm in the Wizarding World but did not cause even a blip in the Muggle World," said Agent Lockhart. "The Bureau thinks that this may mean that whoever or whatever is responsible for the Incursion knew that they had to hide from muggles, but maybe they did not think that they had to hide from wizards as well. This could mean that the Invaders think that there is no magic in our world. If this is so, then the Bureau wants them to go on thinking this.
"We don't want to take the chance that they may detect any native magic users! If this is a hostile invasion, we – wizards and witches – could be our world's only ace-in-the-hole! Now get dialing, Preppie . . . !"