Chapter 26: Collecting
Seeing the last customer out of the shop, Angelina closed the door and locked it, the charms above the door activating and the sign outside that flashed saying, "Closed." It had been a long day, much like it always was, but she was more than willing to work hard in order to keep this shop running. Fred was a part of his shop and she didn't want to see it crumble to the ground, much like many.
She knew that George got help from family members, even Percy when he was free, all contributing to help keep the shop running smoothly through busy days. It was honestly amazing to watch a family come together to help preserve the memory of Fred.
Now they were preparing to mourn another death.
Angelina truly felt sorry for the family, especially George who she knew to be still reeling from the death of his twin. She wanted to do more, but Angelina knew that simply helping with the shop was all she could do at this point in time. Though on the bright side, there had been a few things taking George's attention recently, so it kept him busy.
Hearing the door open, Angelina spun around, shocked that someone had gotten past the locking charm so easily. She was met by a tall man, short black hair bright green eyes. It was a face that despite slightly sharper and lacking glasses, was one she recognised.
"Harry?" She questioned. "What are you doing here?"
"Hi, Angelina. I came to speak to George, he said he was in." Harry said and before Angelina could answer, George, poked his head out from the back.
"Don't worry about it, Angelina, I'll take it from here." He called. "Harry, I've got your order so come into the back."
As soon as he said it, George disappeared, and Harry rose a brow. "He seems more eccentric than usual is that a recent thing?" Angelina released a sigh and nodded his head.
"Ever since Bill died, at times I've caught him referring to himself as Fred. I think the stress is getting to him." Angelia responded and Harry frowned, shaking his head. He knew that stress was a problem that could affect people mentally, Harry wasn't blind to the changes within himself, but this sounded like it bordering on a serious psychological break.
"Fucking hell." Harry then turned to Angelina and gave her a small nod. "Well, I'll see what I can do to help, I'll cover the cost for a Mind Healer. But for now, just keep an eye on him."
"Don't have to tell me that." She muttered as he walked into the back, closing the door behind him only to find the little backroom warehouse empty.
"George?" Suddenly the young man in question jumped up, looking fully dishevelled and a little bewildered. "You alright?"
George nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah I'm good."
Moving towards the counter, Harry looked around the warehouse. A few House Elves were popping around, using their magic to help get a production process working. 'This place has really come far.' He noted, wondering if this was the only sight that George had that produced his product.
Harry knew from the reports given to him by George – as was expected for someone who had invested so much into a company – that the shop was producing a large amount of income. And while this room had been magically expanded and with the help of the House Elves in overseeing the production line, there were limits to magical expansion.
"So, do you have my order?" George smirked, dropping down and pulling out a small wooden box, turning it to face Harry and pulling back the lid showing rows of small, circular pellets.
"This was very fun to work on." George eagerly stated. "I mean, I was full of inspiration when making this. I mean improving the smoke pellets was easy, I just added a few runes into the shell that not only made the smoke thicker and harder to see through. Channelling a little magic into the runes and you'll be able to see through it. That was pretty simple to make."
George ignored those and instead pulled out a larger pellet that had a light green sheen to it. "These are my masterpieces. Inside is gunpowder, Floo Powder and flakes of silver giving it that extra little effect against Magical Creatures."
"Floo Powder?" He questioned, unsure as to why he chose that of all things.
"Yes, you see Floo Powder is actually from what is effectively a magical crystal that's ground down. It also happens to hold a large amount of magic within it that when gathering kinetic energy releases it outwards. In a Floo Network, it releases the stored energy into the runes surrounding the fireplace. That's how Floo Networks work. So, following the same train of thought if you throw this…"
"It'll explode?"
"Exactly."
Moving forward, Harry closed the lid once George put the pellet back in. "How much does the Unspeakable Department owe you for these?"
"Considering materials and minerals that went into creating this and five of them, that will be about five hundred galleons, each." Harry hummed, it wasn't cheap, but it wasn't expensive either.
Nodding his head, Harry took the box, placing it in a magically expanded bag while four more boxes appeared on the table before him. "An agent will be arriving in a few days with the necessary payment. Just keep an eye out for that."
-X- Line Break -X-
Looking across at the four figures stood across from him, Harry leaned back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. Their outfits were similar, all clad in full black clothing with a mask pulled up over the lower halves of their faces. But whereas they were clad in just black clothing, Harry was clad in his Dragon Scale armour, the various dents and cuts repaired though there were still marks to show that the battles had not been easy.
"Congratulations on passing the basic training, my codename is Dragon, your superior and Field Commander of Unspeakable Field Agents. My authority is the second highest in the entire organisation with only Croaker surpassing me. But in the field, whatever order I give, is one you follow first and foremost, am I clear?"
"Yes sir." Was the unanimous response.
Harry then reached behind him, holding a folded pile of clothes and presenting them to the man he knew was Derek. "Your codename will be Dog." There was a momentary twitch, from the man and Harry felt his lips twitch up. He hadn't chosen the codename, Croaker had but it was certainly amusing to him.
Harry then went round to the others.
"Bear…Valkyrie…Eagle." He listed each one individually before stopping "Before we get any further, Eagle. I'm aware you're being made a special operative, our intelligence officer, correct?"
"That's correct. I've already been getting into contact with informants and those who owe me favours as Croaker requested." Eagle explained.
"That's all well and good, but you're still being a Field Operative at this moment." The countenance of Eagle showed his displeasure at this news. "I will be your personal guard during this time, you're too important to let die but at the same time, we are too short on numbers to let you stand on the sidelines. I expect your full cooperation, am I understand."
Eagle didn't answer straight away but it was begrudgingly. "Yes."
"Good." Harry then pulled out the five boxes containing the pellets George had made. "In these contain two types of standard-issue weapons for Field Agents. There are instructions inside composed by myself, read and familiarise yourself with them."
It was something Harry had done as soon as he retrieved them from George. Creating a detailed report as to what situations to use them and when not to, one thing he had identified was that the smoke pellets could be used at any Agents decision based on the situation around them. Partly because they were easily replicable, but one thing he had made sure to stress in the notes was that prior warning and signals would need to be given to nearby agents.
However, while smoke pellets could be used at the discretion of any agent, the Magical Grenades as Croaker had termed them could only be used in two situations. The first and most common, was if Harry gave the signal himself or if the situation was dire enough that it required a Magical Grenade.
"Get some rest, we move out tomorrow." Harry dismissed them, watching the four new Field Agents funnel out of the room. He didn't know how well they would handle an actual battle, especially considering they had less training than he did. But that didn't matter to him, his job was to make sure they came back alive because, at the end of the day, they could learn from their mistakes just like he did. Yet you needed to be alive in order to do so.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone