Edited by the mighty pazed!
Once again I own nothing! Just playing with someone else's toys!
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Chapter 30
"And he's alone?" the blond woman asked.
"Yeah," her friend replied. "He's all alone, I made sure, he's studying at the table near the back wall."
"Good!" she said with a wide smile. "I've been waiting for a chance like this! How do I look?" she asked, turning away from the mirror after finishing the touch ups to her makeup.
"Smashing, Court!" the brunet replied to the beautiful blue eyed blond. "Now get out there!" she said.
"Is someone sitting here?" a feminine voice asked.
Harry didn't bother to glance up from the screen on his Stark Industries laptop, as he continued to type. "No," he said, as he checked one of the books he was using as a reference.
"Do you mind?" the voice asked.
He shrugged. "No."
After she settled in the chair across from him she pretended to work for a moment. "I think we are in the same literature lecture…" She continued when he didn't look up, "with Dr. Graves… Tuesday and Thursday? Just after lunch?"
He just nodded again, still not looking up. "Mmmmm… Yeah."
She gritted her teeth in aggravation, but hid it behind a pleasant smile. "Soooo… what do you think of the class?"
He shrugged again. "I like it…" A quiet buzzing came from the phone lying next to his computer.
She glanced down at the phone as his hand moved to pick it up, trying to see the source of this interruption. Despite her best efforts his hand obscured the screen blocking her from seeing what it was, though she was almost sure it was not a call or text, as he did not answer or reply.
He frowned at the screen momentarily, before scooping up his computer quickly and snapping it shut, then sliding it into a backpack in one swift motion.
"Something wrong?" she asked as he stood quickly and slipped his jacket on.
"Hunh? What?" he said confusedly as he dropped his reference book on the librarian's cart, while wishing he had a moment to return the book to its proper place, Madam Pince would have ripped strips off him if he had done something similar at Hogwarts. "No… I just need to take care of something," he said looking at the girl for the first time. "It was nice to meet you…" He stumbled when he realized he didn't know her name.
"Ross," she said smiling brightly, and holding out her hand. "Courtney Ross."
Harry took her hand briefly. "Harry Potter," he said with a crooked smile. "Sorry, but I've got to run."
She watched as he made his way toward the side stairs and out the door, before her pleasant smile morphed into a thin line that showed her aggravation. "Dammit!" she said under her breath as she stood and moved toward the nearby window, looking out on the yard beside the building, trying to get a glimpse at her quarry as he left.
The brunet was at her side moments later. "What happened Court? Where did he go?"
Growling quietly, Courtney answered. "I think he had to be someplace, and had an alarm set on his phone." She shook her head when her quarry didn't appear downstairs. "He must have gone the other way…" she muttered.
The brunet shrugged. "No worries Court. We'll figure it out."
Courtney nodded as she retrieved her things from the table. "Let's get out of here, I hate the library… it's too quiet."
Harry trotted down the stairs looking around making sure the coast was clear and he couldn't hear anyone in the stairwell, then as he reached the landing he spun on his heel and disappeared with an almost inaudible 'pop'.
When he stepped out of the spin he was standing just outside the front door of the Whitman estate, another 'pop' from nearby told him his girlfriend of almost six months had arrived. "Hey," he said, accepting her hug and a quick kiss. "Let's get changed, I'll meet you in the war room.
"Alright," she said, opening the door and stepping inside. "Did you make any headway on your paper?" she asked as they jogged up the steps.
"I finished all of the research, and have my references," he said as they reached the landing and turned down one of the hallways. "It's down to writing it, I hope to be done before our date Friday."
She smiled at him. "That will mean the rest of the weekend without worries! Once I read it and make some notes of course… revisions can wait till next week, this weekend we deserve a break."
He nodded. "Yeah we have been studying kind of hard, I'm looking forward to this weekend."
"Me too, see you downstairs," she said, as they headed toward their rooms.
Harry and Hermione arrived within moments of each other, both in their newly updated costumes.
Harry's looked much the same, only it now sported a muted colored Union Jack on the upper panel on his back, covering the shoulders of his great coat. A holster on his left hip held a pistol, ready for cross draw, and a trench knife handle protruded from the top of his right boot just slightly, and a balaclava hid not only his face but his eyes as well, in an inky dark blue featureless mask.
The up dated version of the Webley Mk IV looked identical to the one that Brian Falsworth had carried when he held the mantle of Union Jack. Tony had done quite a bit of his magic on the gun, giving it not only a tazer like round (that left a red trail, making it look like a stunning spell), but also a tracker round as well, allowing him to follow a target from a safe distance. The knife now held a backup wand hidden in the handle and up into a hollow in the blade… just in case.
He had also paid a visit to the twins' joke shop and had filled several of his belt pouches with all kinds of goodies from them as well.
Hermione's hadn't changed much, though she had opted to change the color from purple and cream to a deep brick red and cream in a slightly different pattern, to go more with the coloring of the projection that came from her gauntlet.
Moving to their seats, they looked around at the others already gathered, giving them questioning looks as they glanced at the unknown woman sitting at the head of the table.
"Alright where's the last one of you lot?" that woman asked.
"Keep your skirt on luv!" said an agitated voice from the hallway. "I just got this damn suit two days ago! Takes a bit of getting used to, it does!" the voice's owner went on as she entered.
Gone were the punk style clothes, though she still preferred that style out of costume, and in their place was a black and red suit with a yellow circle on the center of the chest. A dark gray metallic harness rested on her shoulders and ran down connecting to a heavy belt around her waist, while supporting a grey box above her left shoulder. Matching metallic grey gauntlets sat on each wrist, and her face was hidden behind a matching mask.
"Have you settled on what you want to be called yet Harley?" asked Hermione.
She shrugged. "I wanted to go with Killpower… I mean I modeled the suit after his and all…" she said sadly, missing her lost friend. "But they think it would give people the wrong message."
"Yeah like no one would get the wrong idea with a name like that…" muttered Spitfire under her breath.
Harley glared at the woman. "We finally settled on something simple… Archer."
Hermione nodded.
The woman at the end of the table stood, drawing their attention to her. "Great, with that settled we can get on with this!" she said.
Harry took a good look at her at that point. She stood about five foot nine, in short heels, and was wearing a dark purple business suit with a cream colored top, had long black hair, brown eyes, and round metal frame glasses. She carried herself with confidence and gave off a stern feeling much like that he had once associated with the now Headmaster of Hogwarts Minerva McGonagall.
"My name is Romany Wisdom and I will be your contact and coordinator with British Intelligence and Law Enforcement." She looked at her watch. "From this point on any summons you receive will tell you to gather here unless otherwise instructed by coded message sent directly to your combat coms. Understood?"
The group nodded.
"Excellent!" she said. "Welcome to S.T.O.R.M., Strategic Threat Observation, Retaliation or Mitigation. Your unit code name will be AVALON!
To be continued, in Avalon Vol, 1! I will post to this story when the new book begins, as an alert to the new story, but that may be a while.