If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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Aksel Thorn sat on the sofa in the lounge area of the hotel's master suite, booked for Quinn to stay in for his time in Denmark, reading the newspaper Daily Eyewitness for the daily happenings in the community. He, too, had been staying with Quinn instead of living in the comfort of his own home. The instructions for his job had been clear; he was to stay with Quinn and don't leave him alone.
It was eight days since Quinn had arrived in Aarhus, Denmark, and today was also the last day of his stay here. Tomorrow morning, the portkey back to Quinn's home, Herefordshire in West Midlands of England, would activate, and Quinn West would return to his own country. Setting Aksel free from being a chaperone so that he could return to his actual and much more meaningful job.
He looked up from his newspaper to the closed door of the master bedroom that Quinn was using. The British teenager had been spending a lot of his time inside his room since day five.
Quinn would wake up at the same time as him and would go work out at a park nearby, wash up, eat breakfast at a new restaurant, and then they would go to Haldor's apparition classes to learn apparition. They would return after Quinn spent two to three hours practicing apparition. A time that both he and Haldor believed to be a ridiculous amount of time to devote to apparition magic every day. Most people would practice it for a quarter of an hour each session and not the time Quinn put in.
They would return just before lunch and eat their second meal at a new restaurant yet again, and then Quinn would rest for an hour in his room before he would drag him to explore more of the community for the rest of the day and call it a day after eating dinner a new restaurant. After that, Quinn would retreat into his room, and it would be the last time Aksel would see him for the day.
But this tourist-guide routine changed on the fifth day when Quinn didn't ask him to continue exploring his homeland and choose to rest for the day inside his room.
Aksel assumed it was magic fatigue from the long sessions of apparition every day. Apparition magic was magic-heavy sorcery, and it was already astonishing that Quinn was able to go three days without choosing to rest after spending more than two hours of continuous apparitions.
Aksel's assumption seemed right when on the sixth day, Quinn once again asked him to be his guide for the day, and they repeated the routine they had been following. Quinn seemed to be feeling as energetic as ever, suggesting that the day's rest had worked for the magic recovery. But then the same thing happened on the seventh day when Quinn decided to stay inside his room for the entire day, only coming out for meals at new restaurants.
And today, on the eighth day, Quinn was once again holed up in his room after returning from apparition classes and lunch. Aksel raised his wrist to check the time on his watch and saw that the time was five in the evening and decided to check on Quinn.
Quinn had been civil in his stay here with him and hadn't given him much trouble, unlike what the briefing had warned him. Today was Quinn's last day in Denmark, and Aksel wanted to find if he wanted to go out today.
Aksel got up from his sofa and walked to Quinn's door.
"Quinn," called Aksel, knocking on the door. Then waited for his charge to answer, but no answer came from the inside. So he knocked on the door once again and called out a bit louder this time. Once again, the silence was returned to his calls.
Aksel's first thought was that Quinn was asleep and turned away from the door to let him sleep until it was time for dinner. But after talking a few steps away from Quinn's door, Aksel stopped and turned back to the door. He thought back to the briefing he had been provided on Quinn, and another thought entered Aksel's mind.
"... Would he? No, right? He didn't give me any trouble," muttered Aksel as he stood still for a moment before walking to Quinn's door and turning the door handle to open the door.
Inside he saw that the candles were lit, bathing the room in light, but his eyes widened when he saw no signs of Quinn inside the room. Aksel immediately entered the room, briskly walked to the attached bathroom, and opened the door to see it empty.
"Oh, no," spoke Aksel as his hands tightened into a fist.
Quinn West had evaded him without knowing, and he had no idea where the person he was supposed to protect was.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn smiled as he walked through the biggest magical hotspots of Aarhus, wandering between the magical population of Denmark, which gathered to work, shop, and enjoy themselves. The streets he strolled through were similar to the ones of Daigon Alley and the other markets surrounding it.
He had already visited the area with Aksel, so he knew the layout and had memorized the streets. Occlumency had helped him greatly to remember the details needed to navigate without the assistance of Aksel or any other native.
Exploring with Aksel was fine-and-all, but the Danish chaperone stuck to the shops in the central area and some of the local spots he knew from living in Aarhus, refusing to be adventurous and detour to new and exciting places.
'Places similar to Knockturn Alley back home. Places frequented by those who deal in the so-called "darker" arts,' thought Quinn as he browsed through the shops on the central street where people who wanted nothing to do with the "darker" aspect of the society.
These were the places that Aksel took him to, but Quinn was only in Denmark for a week and didn't have much time, so he needed to move along and dive deeper to get what he wanted. And to accomplish that, he started to sneak out of the hotel room starting from the fifth day.
It wasn't easy to get past Aksel; as it turned out, his chaperone was great at his job. It had taken a bit of magic to get past without Aksel doing aware that he was gone. Quinn had employed very subtle use of confundus charms, illusion magic, sound magic, and watching his timing of sneaking out.
He was successful on his first day, which turned out to be great because it didn't arise Aksel's suspicion, and Quinn could easily sneak out today and the day yesterday. He had to stay with Aksel on the sixth day to check if the Danish man was suspicious: fortunately, Aksel didn't have any inkling of what had transpired.
Quinn ducked into a dark alley between two buildings, momentarily distancing himself from the crowd. No one came out of the tunnel for a full minute before a grown man with golden hair and blue eyes walked out of the dark alley with a handsome smile on his face.
He casually walked back into the crowd and continued to walk among them with his hands behind his back, but if one was paying attention, they would notice that the man was trying not to make even the slightest contact with anyone.
The man was, of course, Quinn West, albeit not in his usual form. This was the form Quinn used to mingle amongst the market while hiding himself from everyone.
There were a couple of ways through which a person could change their appearance. The ones Quinn knew were Polyjuice potion that could copy the target's appearance to a T, full-body transfiguration to alter the body structure, and finally, illusion magic to cast a glamor that would deceive the eyes of an observer.
Polyjuice potion wasn't usable in this situation because Quinn didn't have any hair from a British person, and taking hair from a Danish person would be risky with chances of getting recognized. Plus, the Polyjuice potion took a month to brew, and Quinn only had a few doses that he was saving for emergencies.
Full-body transfiguration was an application of transfiguring the body to alter the structure and appearance to resemble someone else. The concept was a simpler version of what a metamorphmagus did instinctively on a daily basis.
A highly skilled and trained transfiguration master who specialized in self-transfiguration could recreate a metamorphmagus's genetic ability. What came naturally to a metamorphmagi required hard work to a person who lacked the trait. Quinn, on his current level, could perform a self full-body transfiguration. But not on a level where he could change his body structure on a whim.
The last option was illusion magic, something Quinn was quite skilled at, and it was the method he was using. The face he wore was an amalgamation of features from a couple of different people from non-magical England. A random face, yet slightly charming face, made from borrowed facial features to create something that couldn't be tracked as the person didn't exist.
Recreated by the use of illusion magic to sculpt a body over Quinn's actual body. The body was taller than Quinn's, meaning that if he were to turn his head, then the illusion's head a few inches above him would also turn the exact same way. If he raised his hand, then the surrounding illusion would raise his hand.
If he grabbed something, then it would be through magically produced telekinesis. Even if Quinn collided with someone, then they would be coming in contact with a force field roughly in the shape of Quinn's illusion body, and they would feel like that they came in contact with an actual body through the means of tactile illusion magic that messed with the sense of touch.
But it was best Quinn didn't come in contact with anyone at all. Prevention was better than cure, after all.
Slowly the crowd thinned, and people started to turn away from the direction Quinn was walking in. The central area that shone with activity and beaming with lively air slowly faded into grey streets and dim buildings. The place's turned dull and simple, but yet there was a freeness in the air.
As Quinn walked, the few people in the different streets would give him a glance over for identification as if he was prey. The shopkeepers inside their shops would check him out to see if they could profit from him as they ripped him off his money for artifacts that would turn out to be a fake.
But Quinn didn't give any of them a single look. He simply walked with a smile of confidence on his face that radiated that he belonged here and knew what he was doing. Walking for five minutes and deep into a darker side of the Danish magical community, Quinn arrived at a storefront with no signboard on it.
None of the stores in this part of the area had name boards. The people who visited here either already the names and function of the shops. If they were new, the information was communicated via word of mouth. No advertisement was ever required or necessary.
Quinn had gotten the information about the entire region on the first day when he let a woman lure him into a shop where she tried to con him into buying a book that she described as a grimoire with a thousand ancient spells. Quinn let her talk and went along by pretending to believe her lies. In actuality, he was simply listening to gain time as he used legilimency on her to find all he needed to know about the place known as Mørke Gade.
The door-chime over the door rang while it loudly creaked open as Quinn entered the store. The ringing and creaking filled the otherwise quiet store, alerting an old man behind the counter who had his eyes closed to open them to see Quinn's illusion form standing there.
"Mr. John," greeted the old man. "You're here once again."
Quinn, or the name he was using, John without a family name, just like Haldor greeted back. "Of course, old man Gamel. You've things that I'm interested in, and you drive a hard bargain. But today, I'm going to get what I want.
The old owner of the store chuckled slyly. "You're asking me for something precious, Mr. John." He then looked at Quinn with a gaze as clever as a fox. "Not only it's precious, but the tomes you seek are also dangerous. If I give them to you, would you be able to handle them?"
Quinn, in the form of John, laughed lightly. "Thank you for your concern, old man Gamel. But, I will be fine." He then reached into his clothes and took out a medium-sized pouch, and jiggled it for the bag to make clinking sounds. "I have coin and lot of it. You want it, so let's put an end to this farce, and you tell me how much do you want."
Gamel, the shop owner, was able to speak English, and because Quinn couldn't speak Danish, he had to communicate with someone who spoke English. Gamel was one of them, and he had the thing that Quinn wanted.
The old man stood up from his seat and walked to the back room of the simple store with his walking stick for support. Gamel returned with an ancient tome in his hands. It had a thick brown case as its cover, and the pages inside were thick parchment which had turned yellow with time.
The tome looked like it could fall apart any moment, and yet Quinn knew that it wouldn't fall apart. He could feel traces of esoteric magic coming from the tome, and that's what told him that the ancient tome was the real deal and not just some old book.
Gamel set down the tome on the counter, and there was word engraved on the thick leather-bound cover of the tome.
「Book.」
That was all the cover of the tome said. But that wasn't important; the important thing was the language of the word. Quinn was able to read it because he knew the characters. It was written in runes and a type of runic language he recognized.
'Younger Futhark,' thought Quinn and looked up at old man Gamel when he said the source of this book.
"The tome is from the Nordic warlocks of the Viking age."
Vikings.
It was the modern name given to seafaring Nordic pirates from southern Scandinavia who, from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries, raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, and North America.
And in this world, with the presence of magic, there existed Nordic magicals, who called themselves Nordic warlocks. A sub-group of magicals that practiced and developed magic that was rumored to have destructive capabilities that could wipe out areas without traces.
Quinn didn't know if the rumors were true or not. He didn't know if the records were exaggerated to boast the power of Nordic warlocks. All he knew was if there was smoke, then there must be a fire.
The Vikings had their own laws, art, and architecture. Most Vikings were also farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and traders. Popular conceptions of the Vikings often strongly differ from the complex, advanced civilization that emerged from archaeology and historical sources.
This meant that the romanticized picture of Vikings as noble savages must've come from a place where people really felt despair. And Quinn believed that it was those Nordic warlocks' actions that completely changed the conception of Vikings as it was today.
So when Quinn came to Denmark, which was once part of the Viking's homeland, he couldn't let a chance like this get away from him. Quinn wanted to see if there was a way he could find the tomes from an age that closely preceded even the Hogwarts founders. And to his luck, Quinn was able to find a single book that held magic inside. Quinn's razor-sharp magical focus, which allowed him to do spells without an external focus, picked up the traces of esoteric magic hidden behind the old tome.
The clever old Gamel, too, realized that this tome was somehow significant, so he jacked up the price. And Quinn had to come back every day because he wanted that book, but he would not fork the ridiculous amount Gamel asked for. At least not until the very last moment, at which point he would give the money and take the risk.
Quinn didn't know what the book held; it could be a tome with basic-level spells or even a memoir preserved like a magical tome. Meaning that it could be useless to Quinn, and he would've wasted his time and money.
"You know the price," said Gamel, still persistent on the price he had quoted to Quinn yesterday.
"That's ridiculous, and you know it," sighed Quinn with the voice he had chosen for John. "I'm going to be generous and raise my offer by a hundred. But this is my last offer. Any more than this, and it won't be worth it."
Gamel remained silent for a moment before returning. "Two hundred."
"One twenty-five and not a single more," said Quinn shaking his head.
"One seventy-five."
"One twenty-five."
"One seventy."
"One twenty-five."
Gamel sighed and nodded in acceptance. "I will take it."
Quinn put down the pouch in his hand on the table and then took out two more pouches and slid the three to Gamel.
"Do count."
Gamel didn't need to be told as he counted the golden currency of Denmark's magical society and checked random ones with his wand for authenticity.
"It's the correct amount. You can take the book."
"That's good," said Quinn, picking up the tome and slipping it inside his expanded pocket. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."
Quinn turned back towards the door to leave, and just as he was about to exit, two men appeared and blocked Quinn's path. Quinn recognized both of them as he had seen them every time he entered and exited Mørke Gade.
Quinn stopped for a second before trying to get past the two men standing at the door, but one of them stepped directly in front of Quinn and stared down at him. Quinn looked at them and saw that both of them had wands in their hands.
"The price has doubled, John," heard Quinn from his behind. "You need to give me the other half."
Quinn turned back towards Gamel and saw the old man looking at him with an apathetic gaze and a natural smile.
"Gamel, I don't want any trouble," spoke Quinn, trying to reason. "We already did the exchange. I got my book, and you got your coin. You don't have to make it like this."
Gamel shrugged, but his look didn't change. "Pay me or leave the book behind."
Quinn stared at Gamel for a second before asking. "If I give the book back, then will I get my money back? Let's pretend this purchase never happened."
"I'm sorry, but I can't agree to that, John. I will be keeping that as a service fee."
Quinn sighed and groaned as he covered his face with his hands: the illusion of John did the same.
"Alright, I understand," spoke Quinn from behind his hands.
Gamel and his two helpers smiled when they heard Quinn. They were going to get paid double the price for a stupid book that Gamel had lying around from before he could remember. And he wouldn't get in trouble because he realized that Quinn(John) was a foreigner and not a local. Tourists were always an easy target.
"It's good that you understand, John. It's good for everyone this way," replied Gamel, his smile widening. But then he felt confused when he saw Quinn remove his hands, and there wasn't a single touch of worry on his face.
Gamel saw Quinn raise his hand, and suddenly his two helpers went rigid. He watched as his two helpers turned pale and started to shake and struggle.
"I warned you, Gamel," said Quinn, walking towards Gamel.
Gamel hastily turned his eye to Quinn and raised his wand in a warning. "Don't come near, or I will attack."
Quinn looked at the wand lazily, and it went flying away out of Gamel's hand, shocking the old man.
"I'm feeling good today, Gamel," said Quinn as he picked up the three pouches that he had paid Gamel while staring into his eyes. "So I won't do anything to you. You brought me this book and because you're old. I will leave you alone. But the other boys won't be so lucky."
Quinn blinked, and cracking was heard in the store. And then muffled screams filled the store as the two men collapsed on the floor. They couldn't move an inch, and it was like something had bound every inch of their body. And then they felt the pain come in, but because they couldn't even open their mouths, the screams were muffled.
"I broke every bone in their arms and legs," answered Quinn. "They are in a tremendous amount of pain. I did it in a way that small shrapnels of bones are digging away at their flesh from inside. They won't die from this, but those small pieces of bone will continue to tear through their arms and legs."
Gamel's gulped when he looked into Quinn's eyes and heard his words.
Quinn tapped his knuckles against the table and continued.
"It's easy to rid them of their pain. You just have to vanish the bones, and they will be fine." Quinn twitched his finger, and Gamel's wand came flying up from the floor. "But the deal is that you won't be able to vanish anything because-"
Quinn held Gamel's wand in his hand and snapped it.
"- you don't have a wand anymore."
Quinn dropped the pieces on the counter and then stroked one of Gamel's cheeks.
"I know you do shady business, but do it honorably. Because someday, someone like me won't be in a good mood. Someday, you might just be lying on the floor with your bones broken. I hope you have a good day, Gamel."
Quinn pocketed the gold pouches, turned back, and walked away. As he walked away, he broke the two men's wands. Just before he exited the store, Quinn turned back and smiled at Gamel.
"Oh, before I forgot. I can't have you call for help, can I?"
Gamel's eyes widened before everything went black as he was stunned.
Quinn closed the door behind as he exited the store, and as the door closed, the binding charm that holding the two men in place broke, and they started to thrash around in pain. The bone shrapnels dug deeper into their bodies, causing more pain.
It would be a couple minutes later when someone passing by would hear faint screams and look inside to see two men limp on the ground on the verge of fainting and an old man hunched over a counter.
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Quinn West - MC - My name is John... just John: no Wick, no Doe, no Cena.
Aksel Thorn - Chaperone - Code: Red! I repeat, code: red!
Gamel - Store owner, horrified - Messed with the wrong foreigner.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - Explanation in the next chapter.
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The link is in the synopsis!
https://discord.gg/w5dJ82SfMr
If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
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The link is also in the synopsis.
.
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Quinn arrived at the dark alley where he applied the illusion glamor upon himself and dropped the magic to return to his usual black hair and stone-grey eyes. John was gone, and Quinn was back, and with today being Quinn's last day in Denmark, John's appearance would never come back again. At least in Denmark, John would never step on the Danish soil, in case Gamel and his chaps think of revenge.
'Why did he have to make things difficult?' thought Quinn with a heavy sigh as he stepped out of the dark alley and joined the crowd of people back in the central region.
While Quinn didn't consider magic to be light or dark, he did consider people to be tending towards light and dark: ranging from lighter shades of grey to the deep, dark hues of murky grey. And the place like Mørke Gade was full of shady people who had different moral compasses than the average person.
Quinn understood the reason behind's intimidating-extortion strategy, which Gamel had tried to employ. He was clearly a foreigner who couldn't speak the language and was carrying a large amount of money on him. Quinn was sure that in Gamel's eyes, he was a fat cow that Gamel could milk a lot out of.
'Didn't think that I would be using the bone-breaking curse here in Denmark.'
The curse was a cousin to the deboning curse sometimes used while healing magic and surgeries to clear out a bone: used in cases where the bone had problems that couldn't be fixed in a short amount of time, like the bone being afflicted with a curse that took time to cure.
The bone-breaking curse used the magical-medical knowledge of bones and translated it into offensive magic. The skeletal system was the supporting frame of many creatures, and if one snapped that underlying supporting structure, they could cause take away a target's mobility, rendering them immobile.
Quinn initially had learned the spell in his sin curse days from the Room of Requirements under one of the "dark" spell books and had practiced it against animal bones to get better at it. But it was in his fourth year that Quinn was able to tap into the bone-breaking curse's true potential. After learning about the human body in healing magic, and was able to understand the spell on a deeper level. This allowed him to work with the bone more profoundly.
"I hope they use the bone-vanishing curse," humphed Quinn, shaking his head. He had intentionally suggested the bone-vanishing curse was because then the vanished bones would need to be regrown, and Skele-Gro would make sure they didn't sleep at night from the pain and excruciating discomfort.
"Even if someone uses the bone-mending charm, it would still cause more pain," shrugged Quinn. There were so many bone shrapnels inside Quinn's target's bodies that when they would be put back, they would scrape against the muscles and cause more pain.
Quinn had no guilt regarding the amount of damage he had caused. Gamel and the two men looked used to what they were doing and seemed pretty confident while confronting him, meaning that they had been successful at it. And that was all reason he needed to break their bones and leave them in pain. Plus, the injuries were reversible and won't leave any permanent harm. The losses they would suffer were their wands and the free book that Quinn had come away with.
'I can't feel guilt with something like that,' thought Quinn knowing what was to come. If he felt guilty at this level, later he won't be able to do his part in the future. There were terrible things in the future, and if Quinn wanted to get rid of them, he needed to fight the terrible with some terrible of his own. Something like breaking bones would seem minor to what was going to come in the future.
Quinn slid the thoughts to the back of his head and looked around the Danish market streets, thinking how it was his last day here and tomorrow morning he would be going back home.
"I should probably buy souvenirs, or they would hound me later," reminded Quinn. People like Eddie and Luna had outright demanded him to get them something when he wrote them letters about going to Denmark. If he didn't buy Lia something, she wouldn't bring him back books, and that wouldn't be good for him.
"I wonder what I should buy? Oh, right! I should buy them Legos. We are in Denmark. after all. Should I charm them somehow? Or should I give them the stock version? Oh goody~!"
But then Quinn stopped and looked around among the magical people of Denmark and wondered aloud.
"Now, where would I get Legos?"
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- (Scene Break) -
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After roaming around some and luckily finding a store, Quinn bought a ton of Legos. He was sure that Luna would want a lot of them when she discovers what they were. So he made sure to buy an amount that shocked the shop owner.
"I wonder what she would make with them," smiled Quinn as he stood in front of the hotel door and cast disillusionment on himself before silently opening the door.
The door wasn't visible from the living room, so as long as Quinn was silent, no one would see him entering. And sound magic was something Quinn researched since his second year when Filius Flitwick had introduced it to him.
With silent and slow steps, Quinn walked into the living room area to find five new people sitting in his living room along with Aksel, who was looking at a map on the table in front of him.
Aksel raised his wand and pointed at the map for red spots to appear all over the map. "These are all the places where I took him. I stuck to the central and a whole lot of the muggle areas. I would've preferred not to go muggle, but he dragged me along."
"When did he leave?" asked a guy dressed in a suit and overcoat.
"I don't know," sighed Aksel while observing the map. "I found him missing around half an hour ago. But, I've no idea when he left the room."
Aksel's words brought a smile to Quinn's face. He could barely understand them speaking in Danish, but he did recognize some phrases, and to him, it sounded like an achievement because he had been gone for hours.
"... Leave? Are we sure that he left on his own discretion, or was he taken away?" asked another man, dressed in casual clothing. "Quinn West is from the West family, and they are filthy rich. So are we sure he wasn't abducted?"
"I was here the entire day," replied Aksel shaking his head. "He wasn't abducted. If he was, I would've known."
"Yeah, right," scoffed the guy in the suit. "If that's true, then you let a kid get away from you right under your nose."
Aksel withdrew his eyes from the map and looked up at his colleague with a heated gaze. "Are you sure you want to do this now? Because my principal is missing and I want to find him, and do it quick. So I will make it very quick: all it would take is one spell."
The guy in the suit and Aksel locked eyes for a few seconds before the suit guy broke eye contact and looked away. Aksel gave every other man in the room a stern gaze, asking if they wanted to say something else and the promise that he wasn't kidding.
"Good, then let's get a move along. As time passes, the search radius lengthens. We have to find Quinn and quick..." Aksel looked at the band of his colleagues and finished his sentence. "... because if we don't, we will be over. Everything we have built will go drain. Even if we start over, the Wests will ruin us."
All men looked at each other and solemnly nodded. The West family was the owner of their business. A lot of what they did depended on the West family, and if they lost the support, they would have to start again and build up from the ground. Plus, if they didn't find Quinn or if Quinn got hurt, their future would be in trouble as Quinn was the grandson of George West, and that man with his resources could ruin their lives.
Everyone got up, and that made Quinn decide that it was over for the day. And that he should probably reveal himself before they go out looking for. Though Quinn wouldn't lie if he said that, he didn't entertain the thought of letting them go out and sweat a little.
But in the end, Quinn decided to end before it ended up getting out of hand. So he dropped the disillusionment on himself and revealed himself to the group.
"Hello, everyone," greeted Quinn with a smile. "My name is Quinn, and it's a pleasure to meet you all."
The six men, including Aksel's first reaction, were to whip out their wands and point them at Quinn. Within two seconds, six wands were trained on Quinn as the six adults went into combat mode and were ready to cast at a moment's notice.
Quinn slowly raised his hands in the surrender posture with a smile on his face. "Calm down, calm down, no need to be so wand-happy. Let's relax and have some good fun."
He opened both his fists to show choco-balls between his index and middle fingers.
"Chocolate?" asked Quinn, wiggling his fingers that held the choco-balls.
Aksel dropped his hand down and stopped pointing his wand at Quinn. The others also put their wands down as Aksel spoke in a stern voice. "Where were you? Why did you leave? How long were you out?"
"Now, there is no need to take that tone," responded Quinn, giving Aksel a look. "I was out, exploring the city. I have to say it has quite a lot to offer. There is no need to get all huffy about that. Also, you should've told me about the flavored milk tavern? The choices they had were just Magnifique." He did a chef's kiss to show his delight.
"... But why did you go out on your own?! You should've asked me, and I would've taken you. It's my job to guide you and show you around," frowned Aksel.
"That's true, but you were restricting my moments, Mr. Thorn," said Quinn as he unwrapped one of the choco-balls and popped it into his mouth. "I wanted to see both magical and non-magical Aarhus, not just the magical parts. But you insisted that I restricted my movements. You even protested against the random and new restaurant plan. No offense, but I explore better alone."
Quinn was also sure that if he asked Aksel to take him to Mørke Gade. He would've got shut down before even saying the entire sentence. The area was just too shady for a teen like Quinn to wander around.
"But what if you had got lost," asked one of Aksel's colleagues in English. "This isn't your country, and you could've gotten lost with no one to ask for help from."
"Oh, please," scoffed Quinn in response. "I know how the hotel's lobby from memory. With its image and some apparition, I can return from anywhere a few kilometers without breaking a sweat, do ask Aksel. I can't get lost in public, and even if I do, I can teleport at will to return to the safe lobby.
Quinn walked past and settled on one of the single-seater sofas in the living room. "I can tell that you guys are Mr. Thorn's friends, and from the looks of it, you also work together with him. How about you guys sit down and we talk?"
None of the guys sat down as Aksel once again asked. "Why would you leave? Did you not know how much panic you caused? How did you even sneak out?"
"Mr. Thorn, why are you even surprised? Didn't your briefing stress on the part that I will try to sneak out?" replied Quinn. He took out a Durum shawarma wrapped in foil out of his pockets and spoke as he unwrapped it. "It was your fault that you put your guard down. Just because I acted politely, you assumed that the information you had turned null and void. Is this what they taught you when you were training to be an Auror?"
Aksel's eyes went wide open when he heard Quinn speak up. "I didn't tell you that. How did you know that?"
"I didn't," smiled Quinn and took a bite of the pita and the meat inside. He pointed at Aksel and chuckled. "I simply guessed, and just you confirmed it. So, thanks for that. I was genuinely curious if my guess was correct."
Quinn then looked at the other five men: except for the suit guy and Aksel, the rest of the gang had sat back down and were listening to Quinn speak. He observed every one of them and took in what they gave to him. Every one of them looked fit, and the way they had whipped out their wands the second they saw Quinn was indicative of a few things. When combined that with Aksel's confirmation, Quinn concluded.
"All of you are either Aurors or Hit Wizards," started Quinn. "To be precise, ex-Auror and ex-Hit Wizards. Given that you guys work for the family business means that you all left the ministry jobs."
Quinn looked at the detailed map on the table and recognized the detail in the map. "Hmm... let me front a guess. You guys are bodyguards or maybe wands for hire that work under the banner of the West family."
And looking at them, Quinn could see that his guess was correct.
"I didn't know that we worked in this business."
Quinn heard clapping and turned to see the man in casual clothes and flip-flops clapping his hands while smiling.
"Aren't you a smart one," grinned the man. "I am Niel. And yes, you're correct. We are bodyguards for hire. Got trained to be Aurors and Hit Wizards, did some time as Aurors and Hit Wizards, and then left the ministry to start this up."
Aksel, Neil, and Lucas: the guy in the suit, were three childhood friends. One pureblood, one half-blood, and the last a first-gen magical. All of them were poor or came from tough backgrounds. Two were orphans, while one of them had an abusive parent. So they banded together and formed a lifelong bond to stick together and be the family none of them had.
The three were bright students, and when they graduated, all of them applied for Auror and Hit Wizard apprenticeships, and with their grades and aptitude, passed the tests and got trained to become Aurors and Hit Wizards. The three, who didn't have much money in their lives, finally had a substantial income with the job.
"But you see. People can hire Auror and Hit Wizards for protection when they have a good reason to do so, or they have the money and influence to haul around Aurors are guards," spoke Neil with a smile as he crossed his legs; his flip-flop removed from his hanging foot. "We saw an opportunity to earn more money than we were already making, and thus, we left our jobs to start our protection service. We could be hired as bodyguards at a fee. And as it turned out, many rich folks are willing to fork out money for some protection."
Quinn nodded, well familiar with the private security industry, which was prevalent in the non-magical world. But in the magical world, it wasn't common, and thus, this here could be considered a new industry and job line.
"How does the West family business come into play?"
"The connections," answered Lucas, dressed meticulously in a suit. "Not a lot of people do what we do. Most of them were used to going to the ministry for such services, and the ministry would take care of it. But unlike the ministry, we didn't have that level of credibility. Sure we were trained but lacked the connections to get the business started."
Gathering cliental was always one of the hardest parts of starting a business. And this was also for the trio of private bodyguards.
"At that time, we met with Adam West," continued Lucas.
"Adam West," repeated Quinn at the mention of the name. Adam West was his father, who had died in an accident when Quinn was a one year infant. Quinn didn't know much about 'his' parents. He never asked, and none of his family members told him about them.
"Yes, he offered us the connections of the Wests and provided us with clients," nodded Lucas. "From then on, everything was uphill. We never ran out of clients as someone was always looking for guards and defenders. It has been fifteen years, and we have grown from the group of three to forty trained wands working in Scandinavia."
Quinn felt impressed and whistled at the growth. This was the first private security company he had seen, and from what Quinn knew, Britain didn't have something like this. There were retired Aurors who sometimes did something similar for money, but there wasn't anything organized like this, not even close.
"What do you guys call yourselves?"
Aksel, Neil, and Lucas exchanged before Aksel turned to Quinn and answered.
"Limax."
The Limax was a magical creature with a wide, hammer-shaped head, four arms, and a serpent-like lower body. It was capable of wielding multiple weapons at once, including axes, maces, and daggers.
Quinn smiled at the choice of the name and praised.
"Now, that's cool."
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[
A/N:
If the storyline permits, and if I am able to find time in the progression of events, I will bring up the plot hook of exploration of parent's death. Looking forward to if I will be able to create an out-of-Hogwarts plot with the death of Quinn's parents.
Just to be clear, it's not decided yet. It's just an plot idea.
]
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Quinn West - MC - Has a foodie side to him.
Aksel Thorn - Founder (Limax Group) - Bodyguard, ex-Auror.
Neil - Founder (Limax Group) - Bodyguard, ex-Hit Wizard.
Lucas - Founder (Limax Group) - Bodyguard, ex-Auror.
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