DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter. The HP franchise and all the canonical characters pertaining to it are properties of J.K Rowling and the Characters related to the MCU are not mine either.
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TWElve
Yelena was having a conversation with Jean-Paul, a new addition to Harry's security when her comm device beeped.
"Our computer monitoring the new Hogwarts map we made just notified us that our target is where we want him," Sirius voice explained immediately the call connected. He sounded both joyful and agitated. "Are you set to capture him?"
"No, but I'll be in just a moment," Yelena replied.
"Good. Hurry up. I'll be on hold but ready to guide you to target's location," Sirius commanded.
"Copy that," she said before he went on hold. She looked to Jean-Paul "Urgent business from Director Noir. I'll be leaving you in charge of Mr. Potter's security for now. Do your duty expertly. Now can I borrow something from you?"
"What do you need?" Jean-Paul asked her as he looked at her suspiciously. It must have been the way she was smiling.
"Your powers," Yelena answered and supersped away. In seconds she was in her room in the private research tower of Harry's Imperial Fortress. In less than that time she was in her White Angel costume.
Fully geared and prepped, she used the superspeed to head out to the Scottish Highlands.
In a minute she was front of Hogwarts. The Muggle repellant wards did nothing to stop her from seeing and approaching the school. Her mind was far above that of a muggle. Harry making her armour impervious to magical energies might have also had something to do with it. She actived her comm. "I'm in position."
"Good," Sirius said. "Proceed to Hagrid's hut."
"Copy that." Yelena knew Hogwarts more than many who actually resided in the school. From memorising the holographic virtual map Harry made of Hogwarts, which had some rooms in it that even the Marauder's map lacked, knowing her way around Hogwarts was very easy.
It was a puzzle how Harry knew a place he'd never been to so well. According to Sirius no one knew where the chamber of secrets was located not even Dumbledore yet Harry knew and added it to his holographic virtual map that showed 3D images of every single room in Hogwarts.
Sirius had also marvelled at the Room of Requirement when Harry explained it functions to them. Sirius had been regretting why he was unaware of the room's existence in his schooldays until Harry presented him with a technological version better than the magical one.
Harry dropped some of his private projects for a week to build the room. He named it the Interactive Digitalized Smart Room but called it the Smartroom for short. The Smartroom was more than just a copy of the Room of Requirement it could do more than the Room of Requirement.
The room had a built-in neural interface network that somehow telepathically reach out to a person's mind to find out what they require. The room used hardlight holograms and hundreds of the molecular assemblers Harry finally created to give you what you want.
Harry and Forge together created a machine that used something they called dimensionial energy to bend space. Harry added this machine to the room's group of engines. With this machine the Smartroom could become a desert or even a full country. Yelena witnessed this herself when Harry showed them that particular feature. Harry also used this machine to create pocket spaces that acted as storage spaces for billions of materials and millions of molecular assemblers
The Smartroom could create anything by using its neural interface to find out what you need then check the internet for the thing's instructions and designs and voila you have the thing you requested for. Yelena thought of having an energy rifle and the Smartroom made one for her.
Harry had explained it to her that the room had a limited AI. He said he had to add it when he realised that the room needed to be able to surf the world wide web and hack into some companies computer so that it'd have the designs it need to make anything. And the room also needed to be smart enough to use the millions of huge Pottertizer he added to it to make anything.
When she asked how he had the time to make so much Pottertizers and molecular assemblers he finally admitted to her that he and Dr. Burstein created a serum that enhanced Jean-Paul's powers. The Northstar could now travel faster than light without disintegrating and could also now run through time.
Harry admitted that the serum would have been harder to make without dimensionial energy radiation. After enhancing Northstar Harry apparently started using him to travel back in time so he could create more time for his project. He felt he still lacked time to focus on them even if he transferred some to Forge who already had a huge workload, what's with being the head of Imperial Tech's Research and Development Department.
Yelena brought her concentration to the here and now when she got to Hagrid's hut.
"I've reached the hut," Yelena said to her comm device.
"Yes. I can see you in the map," Sirius said. Said map was the new marauders map Harry had Sirius make after he created his own hologram map. As Harry had said you don't need to have access to the ward stone to create the original version of the map so he had Sirius create two more even if they couldn't be upgraded without the school's wardstones.
"Do you know the rats location?" Yelena asked preparedly as she crouched behind the hut and activate the invisibility field of her suit.
"He's just a few feets away from you. Ahead and by your right. I suppose he's in his animagus form," Sirius said through what sound in her communication device like gritted teeth.
Yelena adapted her eyes to that of an eagle and searched around. She saw him, a sickly rat under the pumpkin garden.
"Yes. He's in his animagus form." She didn't wait for Sirius's further instruction. She had the target on sight so she attacked. She supersped to the rat and grabbed him. He was the one. He had the missing toe she'd been told to watch out for. "I have him and I'm on my way back with him."
Yelena was already speeding away when Sirius replied that she should make sure to keep her eyes on the prisoner. She was paying more attention to listening to Sirius that she didn't pay much attention to where she was going. After she sped out of Hogwarts wards, she ran smack into someone. She and the person were lifted off their feet from the force of her speed. She lost her grip on Pettigrew in the accident.
She didn't lose her eyes on him though. Her eyes that she'd adapted to those of an eagle earlier whatched as the rat transformed in mid air and apparate away. It happened in seconds. She crashed on the floor and raced forward but he was already gone, leaving behind an ear and a foot in his hasty exit.
Yelena heard a groan and turned around. She couldn't believe who she saw it was she literally ran into. "What are you doing here, Harry?" Sirius began shouting for answers from the other end so she quickly replied him. "I lost him. I wasn't paying attention to were I was going like a bloody rookie and I crashed into someone. We were already outside Hogwarts wards so he transformed and teleported out. He splinched himself, though, left an ear and a foot."
"Damn it, were you blind. How could you loose him when you already had him in your hands. If not of Harry's orders I'd have gone on this mission by myself..."
Yelena was already beating herself up with guilt and self depreciating thoughts when she heard Harry's voice. It came from beside her and she could also hear it in the comms.
"Don't blame Helena for this, Sirius," he said speaking to mini computer he probably used to hack into the comm network. "This is a mistake anyone could have made. She was using a power she had no experience with. I'm not trying to say she won't be punished, no – her training time in the Smartroom will be tripled and she will have to lead EMPIRES's search for Pettigrew. This not a total loss if you think of it. I will be taking this foot and ear to my Head of Research and Development of Magical Products to see if she can use them to track down Pettigrew."
The sigh of the Director of EMPIRES reach her through the comm. "I won't apologize for what I said just for the tone I used. You were sloppy, overconfident and unalert. We all know I'm saying the truth." When he heard no argument from either of them, Sirius continued. "And I suspect you were the one she crashed into. What were you doing there Harry and how... no, why did you give your security the slip. You know, don't answer me just head over to the EMPIRES HQ. Use one of those your portrings you created from watching me apparate if you have one with you. If you don't I'll send over one of those gliders you created for EMPIRES to pick you up."
"I always have one of the portrings with me, Sirius. Don't worry I won't take the Belladonna ride back. Last thing I need is to be mashed Harry or a Harry smoothie on a London road," Harry tried joking but neither Yelena or Sirius found it funny.
The comm call disconnected and Yelena had no idea who did it between Harry and Sirius.
"Hey," Harry said next to her. She refused to raise her head so she could look at him. "It's not really your fault this happened you know. This certainly could have happened to anyone."
When he tried to wrap an arm around her and draw her into a half embrace something inside her panicked. This, combined with the mood she was in already caused her to lash out at him. She pushed his arm away and stepped back. "Don't try to comfort me! I'm not made of glass you know. I made a mistake and I'm strong enough to own up to it and face it on my own, thank you. I believe you can find your way to EMPIRES's HQ on your own, sir. If you'll excuse me."
Yelena supersped off, feeling emotionally drained and confused. She had no reason for attacking Harry like that. Maybe she did and was not ready to face it.
~Break~
Sirius sighed as he cut off the comm connection. Truthfully he was raging mad but couldn't show it in the presence of the EMPIRES Agents around him. It wouldn't do for him to embarrass himself or give away a hint of his true identity to the intelligence officers, intelligence analyst and communication agents that surrounded him.
Half of the Council of Judgement was also here. Sirius was unaware of how Harry found some of these people and employed them. It was just more prove that his godson was very connected.
Sir Neyland Smith was the third most senior member of the Council of Judgement after Harry and Sirius himself. He was the head of The Hunting and Undercover Nexal Tactical Enforcement and Response Squads. EMPIRES's own special mission attack squad. Standing by his sides were Assistant Black Jack Tarr and Adviser Clive Reston.
The most dangerous person amongst all of them in the room was the two hundred and forty four years old Vampire, Lord Xavier Rastrick. He was an entertainer who went missing one hundred and fifty eight years ago. According to Harry, Rastrick had been owing the goblins so much money but was as slippery as an eel that they could never catch him. The goblins, trickster that they were, turned one of Rastrick's hat into a portkey.
Rastrick was performing on stage to hundreds of people when the portkey activated. Finally in their grasp, the goblins made Rastrick their slave. He was miner, a washman, a builder, and a lab rat. The last was because the goblins found a manuscript detailing the rituals that were used in creating vampires. They wanted to improve the rituals to make themselves powerful enough to become superior to wizards. Rastrick was the perfect lab rat. If he died he'd have paid the debt and if he live he'd be their slave forever, anyhow things turn out the goblins won't loose anything of value.
The experiment worked well. Too well in fact that when they tried to use different ancient artifacts to control Rastrick, he broke out of their hold, destroyed all the copies of the rituals' details and escaped captivity – killing all the goblins that tried to stop him.
Harry told Sirius that after that, Rastrick took over the lordship of a dying magical family in Greece. The goblins were not welcomed in Greece. Over there the dwarves handled the banking and mining industries. Rastrick accepted the job when Harry asked him to lead The Neutralizing and Apprehension Lethal Team, their capture and assassin unit. The Commander had been looking at Sirius suspiciously since he started directing Helena on her mission to capture Pettigrew.
He and Sir Neyland offered to send their teams which had some squibs and Muggleborns in them to go capture Pettigrew but Harry had refused and handed the operation over to Helena Belladonna.
The other member of the Council of Judgement in the room who was also a Unit Commander and a born-wizard like Lord Rastrick was Algernon Longbottom.
Sirius was surprised and pleased to know that Harry had some allies in the Wizarding world and was quite glad to be working alongside a man who had been a Hit Wizard Officer in Sirius's Auror days but who was now Sirius's Commander in charge of General Intelligence Gathering Unit. He didn't know of Sirius's true identity which was unfortunate in Sirius's own opinion. Algernon's Adviser was Victoria Hand, a SHIELD Agent Harry knowingly hired.
They had their own spies in SHIELD and many other intelligence, military, and security organisations. They let the spies sent to them get a job with them because the enemy you know is better than the one you don't. If they expose Agent Hand and her likes, their organisations will still look for a way to smuggle them in. By employing them EMPIRES is showing the covert world their lack of experience and drawing them into a false sense of security.
Director Noir's thoughts on his colleagues were interupted by another colleague. "Mr Potter's Chief of Security just... and she is here." Helena was in the room, her arrival causing a small disturbance and breeze, before the Commander if the Analysts and Communications Unit, Dr Anthony Druid could finish announcing her arrival.
"Sir," Dr. Druid's Advicer Prof Mopsus called. "The computers monitoring the M Maps just detected an obscured PNG."
"What do you mean by obscured. Let me take a look at the monitors," Druid commanded.
Before he could take a step the doors opened and Harry entered the room. "I will take care of that." He walked to Helena and picked up something from her hair. It was a bug. Harry stretched his hands and a closed jar made of pure psychic energy formed around the bug. "She will be groggy and weak inside that."
"Who is that?" Sir Neyland asked and he beat Sirius to it by just a second.
Dr. Druid who was already by the monitors answered. "That, I believe, is the animagus form of Rita Skeeter, the ill-mannered Journalist."
"Of all her disgusting attributes you notice only her manners?" Xavier Rastrick asked with a smirk. "What I want to know is why was she there at the right time and place to hitch a ride with Miss Belladonna."
"Good thing I noticed her mind before entering this room because even with us having this place under an M Map she might have been able to still escape," Harry told them. Connecting some computers to hundreds of cameras that monitored the marauders maps they created for Empire City, Empire Street, Hogwarts and some key places in London like Diagon Alley and some parts of Central London had been Harry's idea. The real maps were in a secured location. "Hmmm. From what I just took out of her unprotected bug mind, she was in Hogwarts to spy on Dumbledore. It seems like the man is putting back together the Order of the Phoenix. She was leaving the castle, in disappointment, since her mission failed and she couldn't get through Dumbledore's wards, when she saw a blur rush pass her. She was investigating the blur and caught sight of her just before Helena activated her cloaking field. Rita because she knew the general area of Helena's location managed to get behind the cloaking field and attach herself to Helena. She witnessed everything and when she saw the Harry Potter alive and walking, decided to stick with Helena and gather more information."
The easy way Harry traversed through Rita's mind would have shaken Sirius and the others if they were not assured that Harry couldn't get into their heads without them finding out. They didn't get to be members of the Council of Judgement by leaving their minds to be opened books, after all.
When it looked like they were about to continue discussing Skeeter, Sirius decided to move things along. "We can interrogate Skeeter later," he told all of them. "Now we should decide what to do about Pettigrew escape."
"Like I said, I'll have my private magical researcher try to track him with the body parts he left behind," Harry informed all of them. "She should have the time now to focus on it since she just took on Silvanus Kettleburn as her assistant."
"You still haven't told us who your private researcher is, Emperor. I believe you worked with her last week Anthony?" Xavier asked, his red eyes glinting in amusement.
Harry was frowning and Sirius knew that it was because he didn't like being called emperor, which was what Xavier had been calling him from day one. Sirius felt Harry should learn to deal with it because the media was spreading the name like wildfire even if they hadn't done the launch for the companies yet.
"You are fishing for info, Rastrick," Druid said scowling, "and you should know better than to try me. I didn't get here by being careless at keeping secrets."
"Gentlemen," Neyland called firmly. "I believe we should get back to the matter at hand. Mr. Potter, we should use every resource we have for this search. We need to find Pettigrew quickly before he does something dangerous to protect himself like the street he blew up in 1981. I suggest that we put a team together. Some of my HUNTERS and Longbottom's intelligence unit will certainly be able to apprehend him."
"You mentioned no one from NALT and you were talking about apprehension," Xavier calmly chastised.
"We don't need assassins in a mission like this, thank you very much," Algernon retorted.
"You very well might if Pettigrew goes running to Voldemort," Xavier pointed out and everywhere went silent. Algernon, Sirius and Prof Mopsus flinched at the name.
Sirius didn't want to think about that. Not at all. Not until he is in a place he could think quietly, at least. They wouldn't have known that Voldemort was still alive if Harry hadn't informed them. When they doubted him he asked them why the Dark Mark still showed on former Death Eaters' arms if Voldemort was dead. After the war, Bellatrix Black in her trial announced to all that the Dark Mark was connected to Voldemort's life force, his very soul. No one thought much of it then even when she said days later during another trial that her master will certainly come back to cleanse the world off mudbloods and blood traitors.
Perhaps they believed her to be lying or they didn't want to do away with the feeling of relieve at Voldemort's death only to start thinking about his return.
In a way they wanted to be blind to the truth and soon they are going to pay for it.
It was Sirius job to make sure that they won't, though, so he'd going to do what he can to see if it is feasible to stop Voldemort's rise before it begin.
"We will put a team together. A mutant, a wizard, a natural human and some one from NALT," Sirius decided.
"Helena will lead this team," Harry said and when Neyland opened his mouth to probably argue against it, Harry shook his head. "It's a part of her punishment."
"Whatever you say. I'll work on choosing who will be placed in this team," Sirius said.
"Since you will be leading this team, Helena, if after two months you find nothing, not even a scent of Pettigrew then you must take your search to Albania," Harry ordered his Chief of Security.
"Why, sir. Is there something special about Pettigrew and Albania?" Helena enquired staring into her boss's eyes looking almost embarrassed to Sirius. Not for the first time he wondered what was going on with those two.
"You have heard the rumours too haven't you," Xavier said to Harry. The both of them shared a look. For a moment Harry looked older that he truly was, which wasn't unusual. He gave a nod to Lord Rastrick.
"What rumours?" Algernon asked impatiently. "If both of you have important Intel you should tell us. We shouldn't be running this organisation blind."
Harry sighed. "Since the theft of the philosopher's stone three years ago there have been disturbing news coming out of magical Albania. They sound almost like Albania is facing what Wizarding Britain faced in the late sixties. Kidnaps, assassinations, theft of potion supplies. I never paid much attention to it because then the Wizarding world was not my concern."
"If Voldemort is truly back he'd have shown himself by now wouldn't he?" Algernon questioned looking worried.
"No. He'd patiently work on removing the cause of his demise," Harry explained, "me."
"Then we should discuss your security, Mr. Potter. You can't keep ditching them. We didn't even know you were not in your Fortress today and what exactly were you doing at Hogwarts," Algernon Longbottom asked.
"My business is none of your business. Focus on the business I'm paying you to take as your business." Harry said turning around and walking way with the caged bug secured firmly in his hands. "My security are not powerful enough to protect me if they can't even keep up with me. If I'm attacked I'll be the one who'd have to protect them. I should get going because I have other businesses that needs my attention not only this business. Be good boys and girls you all and mind your businesses. And the next time you make me think of something as rhythmical as businesses Algie you won't have businesses to mind anymore."
"Is he sane?" Clive Reston asked when Harry left.
Algie chuckled nervously. "Oh he is very sane. I believe he just threatened that the next time I or any of us try to control his movements we will find ourselves in deep shit. With a man as intelligent as Mr. Potter I don't ever want to find out what having no business to mind means."
They all gave each other strange and nervous looks before Sirius dismissed all of them back to their posts.