Chapter 19
Priyanka Baruah adjusted her pointy witch's hat as she settled into breakfast at the Great Hall. She was a fourth year Ravenclaw student, and her parents were muggles. She had always looked up to Albus Dumbledore for championing muggle's rights, but since the last three months, he had been nowhere to be seen. A house elf named Dragon was running things, and he was a bit too full of energy. But she rather liked him; he had thrown out Professor Snape, after all!
As she bit into an apple, a sudden hush fell over the Great Hall. A man with a phoenix on his shoulders was standing near the High Table.
"Ahem!" he coughed, pointing his wand to his throat, "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen!"
"He's the dark lord," she heard the Ravenclaw prefect, Sasha Meher, whispering to her neighbour.
"Shush! I can't hear what he's saying," another voice spoke up.
Priyanka listened attentively. This was the first time she was seeing Lord Potter in the flesh. She had heard all kinds of stories about him. The Daily Prophet used to call him a terrorist and a mentally deranged wizard.
"One of my targets is hiding behind a Fidelius charm," he was saying. "None of his acquaintances have turned out to be the secret keeper. I am short on time. It would be a real help if you could provide a secondary way to break into his house."
"How do we send our replies, Lord Potter?" the Head Girl, a Scottish witch called Lindy asked.
"You may owl my Witch-At-Arms, Lovey. She's staying at Hogwarts presently."
"Have you tried divination, Lord Potter?" a Hufflepuff enquired.
"No, my dear lady," he replied, "The Eye of Killrogg is a myth."
"Who is this target?" a Slytherin spoke up.
"The subject of a prophecy." Saying that, Lord Potter waved his hand and flashed away. Priyanka rubbed her eyes. This was a hard challenge.
"I don't think anyone will be able to figure out a secondary way," a sixth year announced. "The Fidelius charm's never been broken."
"The darkest of magics, it will require," a boy called Yoda said.
Priyanka leaned back in her chair and looked up at the enchanted ceiling. It was windy outside. Above the Gryffindor table, a stretchy cloud was floating in circles. Suddenly, a flock of birds appeared, flying in a V formation, and she got a brainwave.
Priyanka wringed her hands nervously as she checked the time for the umpteenth time. Last night, she had received an owl from Lord Potter's Witch-At-Arms. Apparently, Lord Potter wanted to meet with her to discuss her idea.
She had been told to be in the common room at four thirty.
Two seconds to four thirty, one second to four thirty... one minute past four thirty, ten minutes past four thirty...
She began to think she had been pranked. But the letter had looked so genuine! As she checked the time again, a pop sounded beside her.
"Dragon is being really sorry, Mistress Priyanka Baruah ma'am!" the Headmaster announced, bowing. "He be wearing his watch upside down, and not notice until Great Master Harry Potter sir's Lovey be enquiring from him, "Where is clever miss Baruah ma'am?" Dragon be rushing here the moment he be notice. Please hold onto Dragon's arm!" he said, extending his wringing hands.
Priyanka giggled and clutched the Headmaster's left sleeve. He bowed again and they popped away. It was quite novel experiencing house elf apparition. She had only read about it in A Thousand And One Ways To Travel by Soroffle Drew. It had been described as quite weird, but rather fast. She could attest to that now. Within seconds, she was appearing in an attic like room, surrounded by circular windows.
A few mattresses were lying around, and five people were lounging on them. Lord Potter, Lady Potter, a bushy haired witch, a smiling lady... and Professor Dumbledore! She gawked at him for a few moments.
"Welcome, my dear girl," he said, smiling up at her. "I've not been imprisoned, as you see. I'm just enjoying my retirement."
Lord Potter waved at her and she sat down. The smiling lady introduced herself as Fariha, Professor Dumbledore's apprentice.
"I can't thank you enough," Lord Potter began by saying, "Your idea of a quantum hacker was absolutely genius! I finished building my quantum computer last night, and I decided to have you here when I tested it."
He brought out two smartphones from his pocket and tapped them with his wand. They lit up immediately. Everyone craned in.
Lord Potter placed them in the middle, and began tapping them with his wand randomly.
The first smartphone began beeping, and the second smartphone began displaying an image of a large circle with numbers on the side, like an analog watch without hands.
After fifteen minutes or so, a ding went up in the second smartphone, and a small red dot appeared near the 5 o'clock marker of the watch face. Lord Potter tapped his wand once again, and a message box with several numbers popped up. Lady Potter whistled and bumped her husband's shoulders. "That was fast," she said. Lord Potter turned to her, grinning.
"Yeah, it's crazy to think we've managed to break the Fidelius. Would you like to join us, Miss Baruah, to check if we've truly broken the Fidelius?"
Priyanka nodded fervently. She couldn't believe Lord Potter had built a quantum computer so fast, and it had even worked. It had scoured the whole earth like... Mr X lives in this longitude and lattitude, this longitude and lattitude... or this longitude and lattitude, until it had found the correct longitude and lattitude and broken the almighty Fidelius. The second smartphone had known the exact moment when the Fidelius had been broken. It had been connected to a magic sensor, and it had stopped the quantum computer when it had noticed the beam from the falling Fidelius.
"Hamster!" Lord Potter called, and his magnificent phoenix flashed into the room.
"Grab my arm," Lady Potter said, and once they were all holding arms, they flashed away.
Phoenix fire travel was fiery... she had no other word for it. It was like being smothered in fire and waking up in a new place. A Thousand And One Ways To Travel had called it the least dangerous mode of travel ever. There had been no recorded incidents of left behind body parts or corrupted magic in the aftermath.
They appeared in a snowy valley. A lazy river was gurgling beside them. In the distance, a road rose higher and higher.
Lord Potter withdrew a small spider from his pocket and tapped it with his wand. It enlarged to a small drone. When he tapped it again, it flew away.
He took out his smartphone and showed a video playing on the screen. It was showing the view from the drone.
As Lord Potter waved his wand around, the drone flew forward and backward, right and left, till it crossed the winding road and appeared above a small village. Amid towering cedar trees, a small mansion came into view. Lord Potter whooped and showed the video around to them.
"Nate, here I come for you!" he said. "He's one of the most elusive drug lords, you know. Calls himself the prophesized one. Bah!"