Chapter 95: Tehom's Trap, and Plagiarising a Game
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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"I need to get faster. I'm not going to make any progress otherwise," sighed Quinn, as he stopped himself above the triangular entrance to the second trail area. "If I keep going at this rate, I'm going to use most of my time just to get past the vortex."
The third vault —or as Quinn had come to call it, the Aquatic Vault— was set up such that if Quinn wanted to progress and make it to the next trial area, he would need to successively get past the previous trials.
The vortex in Poseidon's Wrath was very turbulent. Every time he plunged into the violent water, it would take at least half an hour to get to the center of the vortex. To Quinn, that half an hour was time wasted; time in which he could be making progress in the second trial — Tehom's Delight.
"Well, practice makes perfect, so I have to keep coming here every day. I'll eventually get faster," sighed Quinn before releasing the Arresto Momentum, which was holding him in his place.
The water engulfed Quinn as he was pulled into the waters leading to the second trial. Tehom's Delight.
...
Like before, Quinn opened his eyes to see nothing. Complete darkness, with only a sensation of slightly cold water covering him from all sides.
He felt that visually and aurally. Quinn wasn't able to see his hand pass in front of his face. The only way Quinn could tell that his eyes were open was through blinking consciously.
The only sounds Quinn could hear came from himself, like when he wildly moved his limbs to create some sound — but even then the noise died immediately, and every sound that Quinn made from floating inside water sounded strange.
Tehom's Delight was hauntingly still and silent.
After the first minute or so, he shifted slightly and experienced a sudden revelation: 'Oh, my shoulder makes a sound when I move it, apparently.' A couple of minutes in, Quinn was able to experience a nothingness he had never felt before, with his mind startlingly clear.
And just like that, within minutes, Quinn's calm mind slipped into nothingness, and he lost himself inside Tehom's Delight. With a clear, yet blank mind, Quinn closed his eyes in the dark. And sunk into a state of emptiness.
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After an unidentified amount of time, Quinn's empty mind suddenly sparked with activity. He wasn't seeing anything and had to consciously blink his eyes to assure him that his eyes were open.
'Damn it! I did it again!' yelled Quinn in his mind, berating himself.
He channeled the magic in the teleportation insignia that was on his hand, and soundlessly, he disappeared from Tehom's Delight.
Quinn came out of the water from the triangular entrance and entered the front stone cave. Not a drop of water could be seen on his body because of the wards. The second he stepped on the floor, Quinn furiously looked towards the waterproof proof bag he had been bringing with him for a week, and it snapped open. A pocket watch flew out.
The pocket watch stopped in front of Quinn, and the lid opened to show the watch's face to him. He saw it had already been one and a half-hour since he had arrived in the vault.
"This is great! Just f$#king great!" cursed Quinn, his face twisted by anger. He got angry with himself, though. "#$%@, I only have two hours today!"
"Argh!" with a throaty roar, Quinn stomped on the ground. A wave of magic traveled through his legs down into the ground. The ground beneath Quinn got transfigured and suddenly sunk down in a dent.
And because he wasn't careful, Quinn stumbled and fell down on his butt.
As he sat on the ground, Quinn thought about why he disliked Tehom's Delight. The reason was simple; he liked it a bit too much.
If he didn't move and just stayed still, he felt the perfect stillness and serenity of the second trial room. Quinn heard nothing, saw nothing; he began to feel as though he was stretching in all directions, that his being was filling the void. Of course, it was all in his head, but he loved every instant of it.
The feeling was absolutely Transcendent. It was addicting.
After the events of last year, Quinn had developed a strong desire to be in control. He craved it and rigorously sought it after. The feeling of being in control hadn't drastically changed his life; even before the events of the Sin vault, Quinn still had some tendencies in which he liked to be in control. Presently, these tendencies were considerably stronger than before, but nothing life-altering.
Usually, that desire became fulfilled when he was in complete control of his magic, with day-to-day activities, and when he controlled his speech and behavior. He exercised Muay Thai every day without fail because it gave him a sense of control over his body. The interior design of the A.I.D office was specifically designed to put Quinn in control. Quinn had also decided the place of everything inside the workshop. Luna, the other user of the workshop, wasn't allowed to change anything.
But then there was Tehom's Delight. It cleared Quinn's mind to an unnatural level and made him feel that losing control was fine, that he could relax; that he didn't have to worry about anything. He had purposely alloted two to three hours every day to the Aquatic Vault, although in his initial few visits Quinn had exceeded that time by at least an hour because he would lose himself inside the vault.
Lately, he had gotten it under control and didn't lose himself as much, but there were times like this when he slipped up and let the ambiance of the second trial lull him into total blankness.
The time he spent inside Tehom's Delight felt great to Quinn, but when he exited Tehom's Delight, the realization that he had lost self-control struck him, and that didn't feel well to Quinn.
The 'delight' in Tehom's Delight truly made sense, but as Quinn had thought when he learned the trial's name for the first time... it was pure trouble.
"#$&^@, `!@(*)+, **{%$}, ~!##*&, -$%#$," cursed Quinn. He usually didn't curse, but when he rarely did, he didn't stop in the middle. It was quite clear how pissed Tehom's Delight made him.
Quinn got up, packed up his bag, threw it to the side, and turned back to the triangular entrance of Poseidon's Wrath. Even though he only had half an hour remaining, Quinn wouldn't let that time go to waste.
"#$%^&*!"
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Quinn was sitting behind his office desk while reading a book on Magical Pathologies. It introduced the effects of magical diseases on the human body.
To properly learn Healing Magic, one needed to read up on loads and loads of books. The amounts of subjects that needed to be covered were vast and extensive.
These days, Quinn had been studying anatomy, physiology, and pathology. He was balancing Healing Magic, his own studies, and the vaults.
"It will take some time to make them accessible memory books," muttered Quinn, turning the pages. He read every word while trying to understand the anomalies that were written in the tome. "Should I try a different method to connect concepts? The Josh Kaufman method seems interesting."
Storing knowledge inside his mindscape that he gained from books (or tomes) was more complicated than storing daily events.
Recalling every word in a book only from his memory was simple enough; the problem came when he needed to comprehend the concepts and information.
Truly retaining information took more time, and it also took more time to create the memory book immersion that increased the time and complexity of the process. Quinn connected concepts to other concepts and then compiled the concept net into a memory book. After that, numerous concept memory books needed to be linked to fasten his recall speed.
Quinn wasn't new to concept retention, as he had been doing it before he came to Hogwarts. It was one of the things that enabled Quinn to go through information quickly and keep uniform progress in multiple disciplines of magic without leaving anyone behind.
And because he was taking on more magic as he grew up, Quinn actively researched efficiency-aspect occlumency, as he was interested in that field. Efficiency-aspect occlumency was Quinn's most advanced magic. It was more advanced than any other magic he had learned since coming to this world.
Take the present example, Healing Magic was an extensive subject, and even though at start Poppy had set a pace that she thought wouldn't interfere with his general school studies, Quinn had thrown that pace away the moment he received it.
He studied at his own pace, and that pace was much faster than what Poppy had imagined. Quinn's learning pace made Poppy think that he was just studying Healing Magic, as he was learning very fast.
She thought that Quinn was slacking in his general school studies, but Quinn had squashed that line of thought by performing all the magic a fourth year student needed to know to Poppy, which showed her that she didn't need to worry about anything.
As he continued to read, Quinn heard a knock followed by the ring of the door chime.
Quinn looked up from his book to see who was visiting, and his eyes slightly widened when he saw the person who had entered the office.
With shoulder-length red hair, almond-shaped green eyes clad with a forest green robe, the professor of muggle studies entered the A.I.D office with a slight smile on her face.
"Professor Potter, what a surprise. I wasn't expecting your visit," greeted Quinn. He then stood up from his barstool while closing his book.
"Good evening, Mr. West," replied Lily as she admired the interior of the room, which had changed since her last visit. She looked at the paintings on the walls and asked while looking at the paintings, "Mr. West, I have to ask, is there a reason you don't have magical paintings?"
Magical paintings, unlike their non-magical counterparts, moved. The painting's subject, background and foreground were all animated to move in a lifelike manner.
"I'm not a fan of magical paintings, professor. I like my paintings when they don't move. I think they are more beautiful that way. It leaves more to the imagination," replied Quinn, observing the professor as she appraised the art.
Lily turned towards Quinn, and the host gestured to the visitor to take a seat.
"What can I do for you today, professor?" asked Quinn as both of them took their seats.
He couldn't think of any reason why Lily Potter had come to the office.
'From her expression, it doesn't seem like she knows about my interactions with her daughter,' speculated Quinn.
Quinn didn't launch a Legilimency probe because, first, he wanted to try the spoken means of communication before snooping inside Lily's mind.
"I have been thinking of new ways to introduce the muggle culture to my students, but I haven't been able to think of a way that would engage the students and not leave them confused and feeling detached," sighed Lily as she introduced her reason for her visit.
She looked up at Quinn and suggested, "I came here to see if you would be able to help me find a solution." And as she said that, Lily pulled out an A.I.D card and showed it to Quinn.
"Hmm... now that is a unique problem that you have brought me, professor," hummed Quinn thinking about the problem. "Something that would engage us, the students?"
"Yes, I'm thinking something they could use in their daily lives," added Lily, watching Quinn, who now had a thoughtful solution on his face.
After half a minute of thinking, Quinn broke the silence, "From the top of my head, I can think of one thing that would engage your students."
"What is it?" asked Lily, excited for the idea.
Quinn smiled as he replied, "Isn't it obvious, professor? All of your students are teenagers, and teenagers or children in general, love games."
"Games?" asked Lily in confusion. She wasn't sure if games would help her students who came from wizarding households.
"I understand your skepticism," chuckled Quinn as he noticed the expression on the redhead's face. "Games might not be the thing you were looking for, but I assure you that it is the thing you need. "
"But, how? How would a game help?" Lily wasn't feeling positive about the idea because she had already tried it. "I tried to introduce football and cricket to the students, but they didn't seem interested in either of the two. None of the students from wizarding households asked me if they could play the sports."
"Ah, now I understand your reluctance," nodded Quinn at the failed attempt to introduce non-magical sports. "I think the reason why your attempts failed is that the students from magical households weren't able to connect to both of the sports. With a thrilling game as Quidditch being part of their lives, games like football and cricket might not seem that interesting."
"But professor, I'm not talking about sports," grinned Quinn. Oh no, he wasn't thinking about sports, nope. He was thinking about something else.
'Something that would be mighty fun to create,' thought Quinn as he told Lily of his plan.
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The first thing the students heard as they entered the muggle studies classroom was professor Lily's jubilant voice.
"Good afternoon, students. Please step in and gather around the table in the center!"
When they looked around the classroom, they saw that the desks and tables had been removed. Instead, there were six square tables around the classroom, with a seventh square table in the center of the room.
They noticed something on every table, but they couldn't recognize the object on the table because a sheet covered it.
The third-year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students slowly arrived at the classroom in batches, and Lily waited near the door with an excited smile on her face while greeting them pleasantly. She was looking forward to today's lesson.
Hermione bumped Ivy's shoulder and whispered while looking at the covered center table, "Hey, do you have any idea what's all this?"
Ivy looked at all seven tables before glancing at her mother.
"No, I have no clue about what is all of this. Mu- I mean, professor Potter didn't tell me about this," replied Ivy with a whisper back to Hermione. Lily had instructed both Potter twins to call her professor Potter when they were in public at the school.
"I wonder what the professor has planned for today," whispered Hermione as he narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what was below the cloth.
All the students had arrived and were chatting to each other, discussing what would happen today.
"Now that everyone is here, let's get started," announced Lily as he made her way across the crowd of students to the center table. "Today, we are going to do something fun."
She looked at her students with a smile and continued, "We are going to play a muggle game today. A game that I played when I was a child, and I am sure that the muggleborn students would recognize the game."
The students from the wizarding household looked uninterested. Some half-blood students who were familiar with the non-magical side seemed moderately interested. While the muggleborn students looked at the center table, trying to figure out the game's identity.
"Today, we are going to play-" announced Lily as she pulled the cloth off the table and revealed the game, "- Monopoly!"
All muggleborns recognized the game at once because of its popularity. Some half-blood students recognized the game, and the pureblood students studied the board game.
Hermione recognized the game instantly. The game wasn't played in the Potter household, but Ivy recognized the game from the times she had gone to the house of some of her non-magical friends.
"Monopoly is a board game. In this game, players have to roll two six-sided dice and move around this game board with their tokens, buy and trade properties, and develop them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents. The goal is to drive them to the point that they have no money or properties...." explained Lily with nostalgia and an ever-present smile on her face.
By the time she was finished explaining the rules, the class's opinion was divided into two. Half of the class seemed interested, while the other half didn't look particularly excited about the game.
But then Lily introduced something that changed the entire class's opinion to positive.
"But we aren't going to play this one because a lot of students here don't feel attached to the properties on the board."
She took out her wand, and with a wave, the Monopoly board folded and packed itself in the game box. The box flew away to the teacher's table.
"We are going to play-," beamed Lily as she waved her wand, and another box flew from beneath the table and set itself on the table. "- Monopoly, Hogwarts version!"
All the students suddenly became fully interested in the game as they stared at the box with an animated image of Hogwarts castle as the night and the day alternated in the background. Murmurs and chatter broke out in the classroom as everyone spoke to everyone.
"... Hogwarts version?" blinked Hermione as she watched as the box opened itself and a board slid out to show why it was called the Hogwarts version.
A moving Hogwarts coat of arms in the middle of the board with a miniature Albus Dumbledore sticking its torso out of the letter 'O' of Hogwarts.
All the properties were changed to suit the theme: Hagrid's hut, all four house common rooms, the Great Hall, Owlery, Kitchen, Quidditch stadium, Greenhouses, Hospital Wing, Whooping Willow, Headmaster's Office, the Great Lake, and many other Hogwarts hotspots.
The game started at Platform nine-and-three-quarters. Instead of jail, there was Azkaban and Detention.
The Community cards and Chance cards were renamed 'Potions' and 'Spells'.
The tokens were in the form of brooms, the sorting hat, a wand, a golden snitch, a quaffle, a bludger, quills, cauldrons, and others. Houses were turned into huts, and the hotels were turned into castles.
The money was still in the paper currency form to teach the students about muggle currency.
Other than that, everything on the board was animated and truly looked like a part of the wizarding community.
"To make sure that even those who aren't familiar with muggle places, I've made this special version so that you all can enjoy the game," smiled Lily as she looked around the classroom, happy to see activity among her students.
Quinn had told her that if she could make the children like the game, she would be able to improve their view of the muggle world. Quinn reasoned that if she could connect the muggle world to something fun, the students would keep their minds open when introduced to other muggle things.
'If you can make them interested in trying new things, then you have already passed the most difficult part of the problem,' Quinn had said when pitching the idea for using a board game as a way to get students interested. 'You want to make them think that if something fun like this is from the non-magical world, then what other fun things are out there? You have to work up curiosity within them. A curiosity that they would try to fulfill on their own.'
After listening to Quinn, she realized that something as simple as a board game could help the students get interested in the muggle world.
She waved her wand, and the covers from the rest of the table flew away, revealing six more game sets.
"Please take seats around the tables and start playing. There will be no studying today. Today we're going to play the game and have fun," announced Lily with a bright smile on her face.
Other than making her students interested in the muggle worlds, Lily also agreed to this idea for personal reasons.
Monopoly reminded Lily of the times before Hogwarts. It reminded her of the time when Lily and her sister, Petunia, were still on good terms and played the game together with their parents as a family. Those were simpler and happy times, and she wanted her students to experience that.
'Maybe with this, I can reduce house rivalry a little bit,' thought Lily as she saw Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students mingling together.
...
Ivy Potter marveled at the Hogwarts-themed Monopoly game when she felt a tug on her arm and distractedly looked towards her side.
"Yeah? What is it?" Ivy asked Hermione, who was staring at the game board.
"Look in the bottom right corner of the board," whispered Hermione and pointed at the game board with her eyes.
Ivy's eyes returned to the game board and went to the bottom right corner of the board. Her eyes widened when she saw the small logo that silently sat there.
"... A.I.D!"
The small logo of A.I.D productions on the board meant that her mother had gone to that person. And that the new game was his work.
"...Quinn West made this," uttered Ivy as she continued to stare at the board.
It made her wonder about Quinn. He had neither approached her nor Hermione to claim the 'debt' they owed him. Forget approaching them, Quinn didn't even look at them when they passed each other in the hallways.
Sometimes she felt relieved that he ignored her because if he looked at her regularly, she would automatically think that he wanted something and that was stressful for her.
On the other hand, whenever she thought about Quinn, it made her nervous because she wanted to be free of the debt, and him not acting on it just made her wonder when the day would come when he would ask them to do something and free them of their debt.
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The creator's question was amid drafting instruction documentation and building models to send home.
The reason Quinn had thought Lily's request was going to be fun was because he saw a business opportunity in it. And not just an A.I.D business opportunity, but a West business opportunity.
He had made a simple Hogwarts version of Monopoly, and that was just something that Lily Potter could use in her class.
On another note, Quinn had created a better Hogwarts version with more charms and features. The version that he had built had tokens and pieces that moved on their own, like wizarding chess. Three-dimensional animations were applied on the boards for a more immersive feel.
Quinn knew that not all people wanted to play the Hogwarts version of Monopoly, so he also designed another version, a Magical Britain version. This version featured properties from all across magical Britain and was much more expensive than the Hogwarts one.
He was especially proud of how the miniature goblins handled the banking for the players so that they could enjoy the game without the additional responsibility of the banker. The money was in the standard wizarding currency with an additional platinum coin.
"This is going to make money," chuckled Quinn as he transmuted and charmed a piece of quartz to take the shape of the player. "Once this hits the market, children are going to pester their parents to dish out money."
"This time, I'm going to fill a bathtub with galleons instead of sickles."
Quinn laughed alone in his workshop as he continued to build a model that he was going to send home for demonstration purposes.
"Money~. Oh, sweet money~."
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Quinn West - MC - Copyright can't touch me.
Lily Potter - Professor - Enjoying the nostalgia.
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Chapter 96: Aurors, Hit Wizards, and Raid
If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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A small, lonely single-story wood cabin built with logs notched at the ends laid one upon another with the spaces filled with mortar, stood in a small clearing inside a dense forest. The log cabin was traditional in its design; a sloping, single-gabled timbered roof and small windows.
Inside the forest trees surrounding the log cabin stood men and women in various attires, although all of their clothes had one thing in common; all wore some kind of overcoat.
"Are you sure the intel is solid?" asked a tall, well-built, fair-skinned, handsome man who had lustrous black hair. The man had an air of casual elegance with a tinge of mischievousness.
"It's legit information; Conebush and Clocks saw them gathering inside the cabin," answered a tall, thin man with hazel-colored eyes and untidy black hair that stuck up at the back. The man was well-groomed and had an indefinable air of confidence.
"Potter, Black, come on, the Hit Wizards are ready," called out Captain Auror Gawain Robards. "It's time to infiltrate the site."
Senior Aurors, James Potter, and Sirius Black turned to face their captain and nodded in response.
An Auror was a magic-user who acted as a highly trained law enforcement official for magical governments. Auror training was immensely difficult and intensive, so there were few qualified applicants. Aurors of different countries dealt with different high-risk situations that were most prominent to them. Their training and areas of responsibility varied greatly depending on the type of threats for which they were prepared for and the magical education they had received beforehand.
The hierarchy within the British Auror's office went as follows.
Trainee Auror, -> Junior Auror, -> Senior Auror, -> Captain Auror, -> Head Auror.
James Potter and Sirius Black were Senior Aurors with a considerable amount of experience. On the other hand, Gawain Robards was a Captain Auror with excellent leadership skills. In charge of his own squad of two Senior Aurors and five Junior Aurors.
Gawain Robards was one of the few Captain Auror in the Auror Office and reported to the Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour, who was in charge of the entire Auror Office.
The Department of Magical Law Enforcement had squads of trained Hit Wizards and Witches, whose job was to move out in dire and dangerous situations at a moment's notice, either to disperse a crowd during riots or to apprehend dangerous wizarding criminals once they had been located.
While Hit Wizards were trained to fight Dark Wizards, just like the Aurors, Aurors were more of an elite force whose abilities went far beyond simply arresting suspects, such as investigation, concealment, disguise, stealth, tracking, poisons and antidotes. Hit Wizards seemed to be primarily a fighting and controlling force and did high-risk arrests, riot controls, and hostage situations and weren't trained to investigate crime.
In non-magical terms, the distinction would be roughly comparable to that of the Homicide and Major Crimes Command and the specialist firearms officers of the Metropolitan Police. In the United States, the equivalent of this would be the differing roles of elite paramilitary units (example, S.W.A.T.) compared to national criminal investigative bodies (example, F.B.I).
In the current situation where Aurors were going to a potentially dangerous situation, they would call upon Hit Wizards, who had superior offensive training and capabilities.
Many Aurors and Hit Wizards gathered for the final briefing before they started the operation.
"According to the information we have, the log cabin you see there is the meeting place of the Novellus Accionites. Currently, multiple members are in the cabin. We're going to apprehend them," stated Gawain as he addressed the gathered team. "We all know this is an important mission. Some issues between the higher-ups have delayed this mission; we should've been deployed to deal with this situation a long time ago."
The conflict between the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Head, Madam Amelia Bones, and the Cornelius Fudge's Minister faction had finally been put aside because of the looming threat from the Novellus Accionites.
"This operation is going to be the first of many. As such, we need to obtain success so that the higher-ups get off our backs and let us do our work. Failure isn't an option, so don't mess up."
"Black and Buttonwood are going to be at the front. Check for charms and wards, make sure we aren't detected. I want the element of surprise with us," ordered Gawain, looking at Sirius and Junior Auror Shelly Buttonwood.
Both Aurors and Hit Wizards were trained in stealth and detection. Sirius Black and Shelly Buttonwood were his two best ward charms experts, so he chose them to make sure they went inside undetected.
He turned to the four Hit Wizards that had been assigned to him for this operation and commanded, "I want two of you to be behind Black and Buttonwood. We will provide cover for you two, so do crowd control and put them into the backfoot. The other two will be at the back in case of an ambush and will provide further cover."
"James, you take your two and apprehend as many as you see. Act as a three-man team and handle the hostiles," Gawain instructed James and the two Junior Aurors under him. He then turned to the remaining two Junior Aurors and ordered, "You two will be with me. We'll be in the center and we will act according to the situation."
Looking at the entire team, Gawain finished with, "Take care of yourselves, cover for your teammates, don't be hasty, trust your partners and work as a squad. Now, let's get in. Black, cast the group disillusionment spell. Let's move in formation."
The team moved in formation as Sirius raised his wand and cast an enchantment that turned a group of people invisible, while the people disillusioned could still see each other. It was a spell used by the more talented Aurors and Hit Wizards that were talented in the field of charms.
Dull, silvery light was emitted from Sirius's wand tip in a circular wave, and as it passed through the Aurors and Hit Wizards, they turned invisible to the world.
"Let's go," commanded Gawain, and the team silently moved towards the log cabin.
With Sirius Black and Shelly Buttonwood in the lead, the group moved forward as the two in front continuously cast to check the presence of wards. The two didn't find any ward until they reached the threshold of the cabin, where they found a detection ward.
Shelly Buttonwood raised her hand in a fist, which caused everybody to stop. She looked at Sirius, and the Senior Auror nodded before holding his wand vertically. He waved it in a pattern and, slowly, a red tint appeared in front of them and expanded.
Buttonwood opened her fisted hand and moved her wrist forward to motion the team that it was time to move again.
Everybody walked ahead and passed through the red tint. The red coloration corresponded to the region whose function had been disabled. As long as everyone passed through the red layer, the detection ward wouldn't pick anyone up.
The invisible squad entered the log cabin with a simple unlocking charm, as the door had nothing on it.
Dust, cobwebs, sheets on furniture, broken tables, chairs, windows, lamps, gaps in the floorboards, holes in the walls, chandelier with broken strings of crystals, broken glass on the floor, rust, mildew, ripped curtains, and shadows around the room greeted the team.
It looked like no one had lived or even visited this place for ages. But the scouts had clearly reported that they had seen people going inside the abandoned log cabin.
All sets of eyes looked around the cabin to see the entry point, and one of the Hit Wizards gained everybody's attention by pointing at the corner of the log cabin. The rest of the team followed the lead and saw crates lined on the floor against the wall.
The Hit Wizard carefully stepped out of formation, stood in front of the second box from the left, and pointed at the wooden crate.
It took the rest of the team a couple of seconds to understand what they were looking at before it clicked. The dust pattern on the crate was different from the rest of the boxes. Meaning, it had been moved. And in the abandoned place, this was the only indication of disturbance.
Gawain nodded, giving authorization to the hit wizard, who then used his wand to lift the crate and rotate before setting it down. And immediately, a piece of floorboard disappeared to reveal a flight of stairs going underground.
The team had found one of the meeting places of the Novellus Accionites.
Gawain pointed at one of the Hit Wizards and James told them to take the lead down the stairs and rearrange the formation to fit the narrow stairs. He also asked two of the junior Aurors to stay in the cabin for safety and lookout.
The group, part two members, moved down the stone stairs. The stair tunnel was lit with fire torches which had a design of a hand holding a torch.
The stair tunnel finally opened up in a corridor, and the invisible infiltrators could hear voices from the end of that corridor.
James alone walked forward with the leading Hit Wizard trailing closely, and the rest of the team followed. As he reached the end of the corridor, James raised his wand and stepped out of the corridor.
There he discovered the source of the voices. James saw a group of people standing around in small groups talking to each other in an enormous hall. A gathering of men and women who wore the same outfits, talking to each other over wine and confectionaries.
The same outfits had the Novellus Accionites symbol on them, which clearly provided that this was a gathering full of terrorists and the people who supported them.
He had counted that there were around thirty to thirty-five people in the hall. The mission group had twelve members, and with two people above in the log cabin, the current body count was ten people: one Captain Auror, two Senior Aurors, three Junior Aurors, and four Hit Wizards.
James noticed that all the people present looked young, but that didn't give him an idea about their age. Magical kind had slower aging than their non-magical counterparts. Because their lifespan was twice to thrice as long as the non-magical humans, magical humans' aging had become different.
First, magical humans usually reached physical maturity earlier than their non-magical counterparts. Most of them reached their physical maturity at eighteen or nineteen years old (18-19 yrs.). After that, aging slowed down drastically.
James, who was thirty-three years old (33 yrs. old) this year, didn't look one day over that of the early twenties. He had this same physical appearance for closer than a decade. And people who were gathered here also looked the same age as him. Despite that, James didn't know the actual ages of the people.
After getting a clear picture of the gathering, James gestured for everyone to walk into the hall and take positions. The Aurors and Hit Wizards entered the hall while in formation. They moved very slowly, so their disillusionment didn't show any distortions.
Gawain had his arm raised and, when everyone was in their position, he brought his arm down. And that was the signal for everyone to open fire.
Suddenly, the jolly vibe of the hall changed as spells rained down on the Novellus Accionites members. Every single member of the squad rained down Stunning spells on unarmed people.
Screams filled the hall as the people closest to the squad were hit with stunning spells and, because of the element of surprise and chaos, ten people immediately hit the ground unconscious.
One of the Accionites in the back of the hall didn't lose calm in the chaos. She threw a Revealing charm toward the group that revealed them to the rest of the party.
"Aurors!" yelled someone in the hall, and people who were still conscious got their wands out. The hall turned into a battlefield.
Immediately the squad switched their tactics as some of them switched to defense against the incoming spells. Stunning spells were reduced and turned into Disarming spells to get rid of their wands.
James Potter glanced at the chandeliers on the ceiling. And while being covered by a Shield charm, he raised his wand towards the ceiling and cast a transfiguration spell.
The spell targeted the glass around the candles and turned them into glass birds with sharp beaks, wings, and talons. The vicious birds descended on a group of Accionites and started to cut them. The transfigured glass birds were meant to be a distraction as, when Accionites tried to get rid of the birds, one of the squad members stunned or disarmed them.
Auror's training and areas of responsibility varied greatly depending on the type of threats for which they were prepared and the magical education they received beforehand. Transfiguration became easy to James Potter, so he was the type of duelist that heavily utilized transfiguration. Lots of his spell repertoire were material spells: the silver-shield spell or Arrowhead spells, and other similar spells.
That is why when one of the Accionites shot a killing curse, James immediately used a silver shield spell to block out the green light from reaching his team.
The state of the battle changed as half the remaining Accionites were getting used to the situation. But the mission squad couldn't let that happen.
One of the Hit Witches stepped forward and showed how they were different from Aurors. She swung her wand in a grand gesture and shot a huge Explosion charm towards one of the tables, annihilating it into pieces. She didn't stop and continued her aggressive attack and used powerful Banishing charms to violently slam Accionites into walls, and brutally knock them out.
Some of the Accionites who noticed their dwindling numbers decided to get out of there. Two Accionites used apparition to get out. But the thing about apparition was that most people didn't use apparition because of the danger of splinching and discomfort, and even those who did use it regularly used it when they were calm.
Out of the two who apparated, one of them ended up splinching himself because of panic; he left an entire leg behind.
Within three minutes, thirty-four Accionites were disarmed, stunned, and bound by ten Aurors and Hit Wizards. It showed how trained professionals pitted against people who didn't have the same training.
"Two escaped," spat Sirius said as he walked towards the splinched leg. He kicked it hard and smirked, "At least they will be feeling like hell."
"We should've set up an anti-apparition ward around the place," one of the Hit Wizards chimed in as he collected the wand off from the floor.
The ten squad members walked around the room, bounding people and collecting wands for safety reasons.
"This is good enough," replied Gawain as he looked at the thirty-something unconscious/injured bodies. "This will get us a task force up and running."
...
The next day, the news about the first successful raid against Novellus Accionites hit the Daily Prophet and other news outlets. The papers, who had been badmouthing the lack of action from Auror's part, were suddenly raining praises on them.
That same week, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement interrogated all the captured members and put them on trial by the end of the week. Unlike the end of the First Wizarding War, the Light faction was strong this time. So in Wizengamot, the trials didn't go in favor of the pureblood Novellus Accionties.
Out of the thirty-four people, ten of them were sent to low Dementor-exposure sections for a few years. Three people were sent to medium Dementor-exposure.
And the rest of those who weren't guilty of the murder of muggleborns and muggles had their wands taken for a year. To people who heavily depended on wands to perform magic, this was like taking their magic away from them.
The first raid and trials were the start of a fight against Novellus Accionites.
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James Potter - Senior Auror - Prefers using Transfiguration.
Sirius Black - Senior Auror - Prefers using Charms.
Gawain Robards - Captain Auror - Specializes in criminal investigations.
Hit Wizards - Lucrative career - Starting salary of 700 Galleons per month.
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