Chapter 131: Azkaban Duo, Lovegood House
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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[The chapter is edited by Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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Bartemius "Barty" Crouch Junior entered a well-decorated hall with a scowl that didn't suit the beauty of the room. If the gaze in his eyes held magic within them, he would've burned through everything he set his eyes upon.
"What has made you so upset, eh, Barty?"
Barty Jr. gazed towards the ornate dining table in the room to see Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew reading a newspaper while sitting in a chair with a cup of tea on the table in front of him. He looked relaxed, as if he didn't have any care in the world. As if he was enjoying the small pleasures of life.
"Moody! That one-eyed freak is weirdly resistant to the Imperious," spat Barty with a toxic tone. "He has begun to somewhat refuse to answer my questions."
Peter looked at Barty. He attributed this to two reasons. First, that Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody was simply a freak of nature with an iron will to resist an Imperious, and second, that Barty Jr., who had not been allowed a wand for over a decade was still rusty when it came to magic. Even he himself had been terrible with magic for a few months after getting out of Azkaban.
"I'll help you to worm information out of Mad-Eye," spoke Peter, picking his cup to sip on some tea. "It's imperative that we get as much information from him before you go to Hogwarts. You have to know everything about him, from the way he moves to the way he behaves. You will be working in close quarters with Dumbledore; anything less than perfect isn't acceptable."
After they found out that Dumbledore had asked Moody to come to Hogwarts and teach Defense Against Dark Arts, the Dark Lord had ordered them to capture the ex-Auror so that they could infiltrate Hogwarts for his plans and schemes for his revival. He had been kept under the Imperius curse constantly to gain information about himself so that Barty Jr. could impersonate him.
"You will help me?" scoffed Barty Jr. He looked down on Wormtail as he continued, "Don't act all high and mighty just because you found the Dark Lord. I still remember the cowardly you. Don't behave as if nobody remembers that. You'll always be that pathetic rat who twitches at the slightest of movements. You'll never be a true servant of our Lord."
Peter set down his teacup back on the table and folded his newspaper. He then stood up from his chair and walked towards Barty Jr. He didn't seem angry at Barty Jr.'s cutting words.
"If I remember correctly, you cried for your mum during the time you were in Azkaban, didn't you?" spoke Wormtail with a calm tone. Barty Jr.'s eyes twitched. He growled. "What was it? Only a month with six dementors assigned to you? That's what you enjoyed in Azkaban, wasn't it? Before your mother took your place and allowed you to escape. You say that you remember the old me, but do you know that the 'true' Death Eaters you respect who didn't escape Azkaban were there when you screamed for your mum like a f**cking whiny little b*tch? They will remember that."
In 1982, his mother's health deteriorated drastically from the stress of her son's imprisonment. In the end, she persuaded her husband to help smuggle their son out of Azkaban. The couple had been allowed to visit due to Bartemius' high status in the Ministry and as Mrs. Crouch's dying wish. Using Polyjuice Potion, undetected by the blind Dementors, Mrs. Crouch took her son's place. She died a short time later and was buried outside the fortress under the guise of her son.
"What you experienced was a happy trip to Azkaban," chuckled Wormtial, but Barty Jr. could see his haunting eyes. "I suffered ten dementors for over a decade. Do you know how it feels to have everything sucked out by those relentless demons for eleven long years? Not spared a single moment of happiness. To be drowned in misery for a decade."
Barty Jr., who thought of himself as the greatest follower to Lord Voldemort, became silent for once and listened to Wormtail. He couldn't recognise this Wormtail from the one he knew before.
"Hmm? Tell me, how is it to be cared for as if you were an infant by a house-elf as we experienced hell in Azkaban," mocked Wormtail. "Was it hard to get three hot meals, a soft bed, and luxuries? Tell me your struggles, Barty. Tell me the horrifying moments you suffered through while the dementors hovered over you."
Peter stared up at the taller man and smiled, "Don't forget that I just didn't find the Dark Lord. If I hadn't found Bertha Jorkins, the Dark Lord would've never ripped past through the memory charm that your father placed on her. If not for me, we wouldn't have come to rescue you. Without me, you would still be rotting beneath an invisibility cloak under your father's imperious..."
All of it had started when the Dark Lord decided to gather information about the wizarding world. He started with Bertha Jorkins, a ministry employee that Peter had brought along with him while looking for the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord had been surprised after he found that someone had put a powerful Memory Charm on her upon torturing her. After breaking the charm, he learned from her that this year the Triwizard Tournament would be held at Hogwarts and that Alastor Moody, an ex-Auror, would teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. She also knew that Bartemius Crouch Jr, one of his most loyal Death Eaters that apparently had been imprisoned in Azkaban after his fall and was thought to be dead, was alive.
Voldemort, unable to possess her body and mind that was damaged by the spells he cast, killed her. Voldemort also knew that Peter's status would attract too much attention, so he didn't possess his body either. Together, they built a rudimentary body that Voldemort used for travel and performing magic. While in this form, Voldemort was forced to drink a Rudimentary body potion made from unicorn blood and venom from Nagini, whom he had turned his Horcrux using Bertha Jorkins.
After creating himself a body, Peter and Voldemort moved to the Crouch residence. Voldemort needed a loyal follower to help him regain power and easily managed to free Barty Jr. from his father's imprisonment. They put Bartemius Sr. under the Imperius Curse and forced him to keep working at the Ministry as he usually would. The house-elf, Winky, who had been caring for Barty Jr. for a decade, was killed without a single thought as she, sadly, provoked the wrath of the Dark Lord.
They stayed at the Riddle House in Little Hangleton for a while because Voldemort wanted to stay close to Little Hangleton's graveyard. Still, Peter convinced Voldemort to move to the house of the Crouch family, away from the muggle population. Since then, the trio had been living in the Crouch residence while planning their future moves.
"... Bartemius Junior, keep in mind why you are here and who you're talking to because, if you don't, things might just surprise you, and that surprise won't be a pleasant one," said Wormtail before walking back to his chair and resume what he was doing.
Barty Jr. looked at Peter and recalled a chat he had had with the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord had told him that he had rescued him because of his loyalty. The Dark Lord told him that he didn't trust Wormtail and that Barty's presence filled him with relief in that turbulent time.
Right then, he understood why the Dark Lord didn't trust Peter Pettigrew. The man he saw now and the man he was a decade ago were just too different. Neither he nor the Dark Lord believed that Peter would look for the Dark Lord after escaping Azkaban; that he would run away from everything and leave behind the life that had put him into Azkaban. But unexpectedly, Peter didn't run away and looked for the Dark Lord.
As he stood there looking at Peter, Barty held himself from lashing back.
'It isn't the right time,' thought Barty Jr. 'The Dark Lord will reward me when he returns to power. Then, we will see who matters more. All that matters is the Dark Lord and his return.'
Barty Jr. gave Peter one last look and then turned towards the door. It was time to see his Lord, who had called him to discuss some things. Unlike Peter, Barty Jr. was a true and faithful follower and would never betray his Lord. He didn't notice the look that Peter gave him when he turned, missing his cold, calculative gaze.
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Quinn laid on the bed. He was reading a book that hovered in his head while occasionally turning pages without actually touching the book. His fake wand lazily laid in his hand and his eyes moved left-to-right on the lines as he moved down the pages.
He removed his eyes from the book. He had heard the noise of a discordant crunch and continuous things snapping together, which created a popcorn of satisfying clicks in his ears. The repeated sound rang in Quinn's ears. It was like white noise, but was so satisfying that Quinn had to look at the source of the noise.
Quinn watched as a dainty hand picked up tan-colored plastic bricks while adding them to a grand, yet incomplete structure with a satisfying snap. One by one, the plastic blocks, which looked like bricks, started to be added to the structure. And with each addition, the structure moved towards what looked like a castle. The conical tops were grey, whereas the rest of the building was tan in color.
"Luna, there are two protrusions rather than three in the big tower," said Quinn as he saw his blonde junior add a mini castle head to the side of two other castle heads that extended from a much larger castle tower.
Luna Lovegood looked at him with her dreamy eyes and blinked a couple of times before nodding and silently removing the third mini castle head, leaving the other two alone. She looked at the work-in-progress, which was a representation of Hogwarts made from what Quinn had gifted her, Legos.
At first, she didn't understand the aim of those Lego bricks, but after Quinn sat her down and made a small cabin surrounded by woods from a load of bricks together, she understood the potential of the gift Quinn had given to her. From that day onwards, Luna got obsessed with Legos and started to build so many things from her imagination; from buildings to magical creatures to… well, anything Luna could imagine. Just as Quinn had promised her when he gifted her the boxes full of colorful bricks, tiles, plates, studs, and tubes type Legos.
"Are you going to help me?" asked Luna while continuing to add Legos to the incomplete Hogwarts castle, which was only in an initial stage- as Luna planned to recreate the landscape around the castle.
"Yeah," spoke Quinn, took out a thin A-4 size notebook, and handed it to Luna.
"What's this?" inquired Luna and opened the notebook to see detailed sketches of every part of the Hogwarts exterior sketched onto the numerous pages. Some were up close; others were from far away, from a bird-eyes view, or from the ground. As Luna flipped the pages, she saw every conceivable angle of Hogwarts she could think of.
"You can reference those for your build," muttered Quinn and continued to read his book. He had a mental structure of Hogwarts inside his head; he was sure that he knew Hogwarts better than anyone else. So after Luna sent him a MagiFax about her upcoming build, Quinn drew up an entire notebook worth of Hogwart shorts.
"So you aren't going to help me?" asked Luna once again, setting the notebook aside. Quinn raised his fake wand prompting Luna to immediately interject, "Without magic."
Quinn snatched the book out of the air and snapped it close. The book went back into his expandable pockets, and he slipped down from the bed to the blue rug that was spread on the floor of Luna's room in the Lovegood house.
"What do you want me to take care of?" asked Quinn.
"The viaduct bridge, please," answered Luna.
"Alright. One bridge coming up," nodded Quinn, and his hands went into the box of legos.
As the two Ravenclaws built Hogwarts, Quinn occasionally looked around the room while recalling how Luna's room had been described in the books. He remembered that in The Deathly Hallows, Harry had described Luna's room and had come across his and the other Ministry Five's faces painted on the ceiling with the word "friends" written in golden ink, creating a circle around each of them and connecting them together. Currently, the top was bare with no faces or any other mural painted on it.
In the books, Harry described Luna as having pictures of hers and her mother in the frame, and this was true, as he saw Luna and Pandora Lovegood in photos together. But what made Quinn smile was the fact that there were more photos in Luna's room other than her mother's.
He saw familiar photos: photos of him, Luna, Eddie, and Marcus, together at Hogwarts. He and Luna together at the A.I.D. office. Luna playing catch with Eddie while flying on a broom. Marcus and Luna playing chess in the Ravenclaw common room. A few photos from Luna's second year at Hogwarts, the year she became a part of Quinn's friend circle.
'Have to make sure that she makes more memories,' thought Quinn and went back to putting blocks into the structure.
"Quinn, is Hogwarts a girl or a boy?" asked Luna.
"Hogwarts is a lady, Luna," answered Quinn.
"How do you know?"
"Don't know, I just think Hogwarts is a lady... Lady Hogwarts just sounds right."
"Lady Hogwarts... Lord Hogwarts... hmm, you're right, Lady Hogwarts sounds better," nodded Luna. "So we live inside a girl?"
"..."
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Ivy Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ginny Weasley walked on a stamped-out path between the grass. They were surrounded by trees and flowers that grew in patches; there wasn't a single sign of urbanization in sight.
"How much more do we have to walk?" asked Ivy as they moved across the small, quaint village known as Ottery St. Catchpole in Devon, England.
The village had both muggle and magical communities, the latter being quietly established after the Statute of Secrecy in the 17th century. Four wizarding families were known to live around Ottery St. Catchpole: the Weasleys, the Fawcetts, the Diggorys, and the Lovegoods.
"It's a fifteen-minute walk, so maybe five minutes more," answered Ginny. She paused to pick up a wild lavender flower. She added it to a bouquet of flowers she had collected during their walk.
The three were walking towards the Lovegood house on the other side of Ottery St. Catchpole. The three girls had escaped the Burrow, home to the Weasley family when the Quidditch talk about the upcoming tournament had become too much for Ivy and Hermione.
And as much as Ginny enjoyed Quidditch, she, too, wanted to get out so she tagged along with Ivy and Hermione. After they got out of the house, they thought about what to do and somehow came to the conclusion that they should go see Luna Lovegood, who lived on the opposite side of the village.
"How is Luna Lovegood?," asked Hermione. "I mean, I know a little about her; she is a little weird, but how is she exactly?" The intelligent witch had once called the Quibbler "rubbish" without knowing that Luna's father was the editor. Luna had heard it and had called her mean. It was safe to say that the two didn't get along well.
"Even though we both live here, I don't know Luna that well. We played a couple of times when we were little, but then, Luna's mum died and she stopped coming over," answered Ginny. The last time she had played with her was when she had been nine. "Luna is... peculiar to say the least. But if you ignore her eccentric behaviour, Luna is nice... it's just that she has different interests."
"Some call her 'Loony Lovegood,' though," commented Hermione.
"Er, don't call her that," interjected Ivy.
"Huh, of course, I'm not going to call her that. It's rude."
"No, I mean don't even say it behind her back," continued Ivy. "If someone hears you call her Loony, then there are good chances that you'll be cornered later that day."
"What do you mean?"
"You know Luna Lovegood is friends with West, right? She also works with him at the A.I.D... so, if you talk about someone calling Luna' Loony,' then people will come for a talk with you."
"Who will come?" asked Ginny. Hermione wondered the same.
"West, Carmicheal, and Belby; Luna's three friends," Ivy said. "If the person who called Lovegood' Loony' is a first or second year, then they will be visited by Belby, who will talk to them peacefully and ask them not to call Luna that. If the offending person is a third, fourth, or fifth year, then Carmicheal will corner them and straight out threaten them to back off, or they will get beat up; from what I have heard, one Hufflepuff and two Slytherin did get beat up by Carmichael. Finally, if it's someone from sixth or seventh year, West will call them in for a talk, and then... they'll stop. If they call Luna' Loony' to the face, they'll have to apologise to her on the same day or the day after. If Luna doesn't hear it, then they are only released after a warning."
"What does West do?" asked Hermione as Ivy didn't specify it.
"I tried asking a seventh-year Gryffindor, but they wouldn't say anything. They would just shake their heads with a cramped smile. No one has given me a clear answer."
Hermione and Ginny looked at each other and then lightly gulped. Getting beat up by Eddie Carmichael sounded terrible enough, but from how Ivy described it, getting called in by Quinn West sounded more nerve-wracking.
"How do you know all this?" asked Ginny as neither she nor Hermione had heard about this.
"... they only started doing this after the Christmas break," she replied shortly, not wanting to reveal that when he had been in his third year, Ivy had kept tabs on Quinn's activities as much as she could.
"Ahaa!" shouted Ginny, as the wind whipped their hair and clothes. She was pointing upward toward the top of the hill, where a strange-looking house rose vertically against the sky, a great black cylinder with a ghostly moon hanging behind it in the afternoon sky.
"That's Luna's house, right? It suits her. It looks like a giant rook!"
"Do you see a bird, really?," said Hermione, frowning at the tower.
"I was talking about a chess rook," said Ginny. "A castle to you."
Ginny's legs reached the hilltop first. When Ivy and Hermione caught up with her, panting and clutching stitches in their sides, they found her grinning broadly.
"Finally," said Ginny. "Look."
Three hand-painted signs were tacked to a broken-down gate. The first read,
「THE QUIBBLER. EDITOR: X. LOVEGOOD」
The second,
「PICK YOUR OWN MISTLETOE」
The third,
「KEEP OFF THE DIRIGIBLE PLUMS」
The gate creaked as they opened it. The zigzagging path leading to the front door was overgrown with a variety of odd plants, including a bush covered in the orange radish like fruit. Ivy thought she recognized a Snargaluff and gave the wizened stump a wide berth. There were two aged crab apple trees without many leafs bent because of the wind, though they were still heavy with berry-sized red fruits and bushy crowns of white-beaded mistletoe. The trees stood as sentinels on one side of the front door. A little owl with a slightly flattened, hawklike head peered down at them from one of the branches.
Ginny stepped forward to rap on the thick black door, but before she could even raise her hand, the door opened, and someone they weren't expecting greeted their sights.
Ivy's eyes widened in surprise. "Huh, what are you doing here?"
"That would be my question as well. Why are you here?" He turned his eyes to the younger redhead of the trio. "I get why she is here. Her house being what... ten minutes away."
The trio of girls stared at Quinn West dressed in a black collared tee and khaki cargo shorts, a positively clear muggle attire on a pureblood.
"We were wondering whether Luna was available to play with us," said Ginny.
At that point, Luna Lovegood popped up from behind Quinn with sparkling eyes. "Play? I want to play. What are we playing?"
Two pairs of silver stone-grey eyes stared at the girls. One excited in dreamy curiosity, the second in... slight surprise and gradual acceptance.
"Didn't we just spend hours building Hogwarts in Legos? You still want to play?"
Hermione, who heard the word Legos, did a double take because of her current location. She hadn't expected to hear that Luna owned Lego or that Quinn had been playing with Legos for hours.
"Is there a limit as to how much I can play? Daddy has never said anything like that."
Quinn crossed his arms and stared at the girls for a few seconds. "I suppose." 'Luna spending time with girls for a change was good for her, he thought. She did spend most of her time with him, Eddie and Marcus. Plus, he didn't have a say in who Luna decided to spend time with.
"Just tell her dad before you take her out, would you?"
"I'll go tell him," said Luna before skipping back to the house towards her father's study.
Quinn turned to Hermione and addressed her, "I'm surprised to see you here, Ms. Granger; the break is about to end. Shouldn't you be with your family?"
Hermione, surprised with the sudden question, took a moment to reply. "Ivy has invited me to see the World Cup's final; the tickets are rare." Plus, she had already spent the first half of the summer break vacationing in France with her family.
"Of course, the World Cup's final. Yes, the tickets are rare. Just over a hundred thousand seats to be distributed to magicals from the six continents."
"From what you told, you aren't going, are you?" asked Ivy.
"Well, yes, I'll be going to see some games. Only I'm not going to be there at the stadium to see the World Cup's final."
Quinn glanced back into the house before looking back at the girls and smiled. "Now, if you excuse me, I was about to leave, and I should probably leave before Luna comes back and tries to rope me into joining you guys. I'm sure you all are an excellent company, but unfortunately, I have previous commitments."
He wasn't sure if he would be able to refuse Luna if she asked him to stay. He spoiled her too much.
"Say goodbye to Luna for me, if you would," he said while taking out his shrunken hoverboard and expanding it to full size. "It was nice seeing you three. Ms. Granger, Ms. Weasley, and Ivy. I guess I'll see you at Hogwarts."
Then he was off, gliding away on the magic-powered skateboard-styled hoverboard.
And a few seconds after Quinn left, Luna came out, while pulling an older man with her. "Quinn, you should play with us... huh, where did he go?"
"He left and asked us to say goodbye for him."
"Aww, well, nothing we can do about that," she said and tugged on the man's hand, who looked like he wasn't paying attention. "This is my daddy."
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[
A/N: Do you know that in the books, the attire of wizards is described as robes. But interestingly, J.K. hasn't specified what they wear inside those robes... Or if they even wear anything inside.
In the books, the school uniform was just Hogwarts robes and no uniform. Movies added the standard uniform that British schools (among many other countries) follow.
And just to specify, my version of pureblood/magical society attire is old-style muggle clothing or specific, simplest of the muggle clothing. Barebones stuff like shirts and pants and, of course, suits are necessary. Also, I don't have a clear image of girls/women clothing: I am just going with what Molly, Narcissa, and Bellatrix wore in the movies.
]
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Quinn West - MC - "... I can build the entire thing under a minute with magic."
Luna Lovegood - Artist - Lego is her latest obsession.
Bartemius 'Barty' Crouch Jr. - Death Eater (Hates the ones that went free) - Technically, he is the first one to escape Azkaban
Peter Pettigrew - Wormtail - That makes him the second one, even though he did it alone, without any help.
Ivy Potter - "Ivy" - Keeping tabs.
Hermione Granger - "Ms. Granger" - Living at the Potter cottage since a few days ago.
Ginny Weasley - "Ms. Weasley" - Luna's childhood playmate.
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Chapter 132: August 25, 1994: Fury of Noir
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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"Uncle, I'm going to London," said Quinn as he peeked inside Elliot Dalton's study inside the West Manor. The older man was focused on his work.
Elliot looked up from the documents on his desk. Quinn was dressed in his non-magical-styled clothes, which he wore most of the time, except when he needed to wear clothing prevalent in the magical world for appropriate occasions.
"London? May I ask why you want to go there?"
Quinn raised his hand. He had a ticket stub in his hand. "I'm heading to the cinema. I might return late, so please don't wait for me at supper. I will eat dinner at home, though. So please ask Polly to set up something for me."
"I see, be careful with the time, then, and try not to stay out too late," nodded Elliot. "Return home before your grandfather goes to sleep."
"Understood," said Quinn.
As Quinn left, Elliot's eyes caught a glimpse of something white around Quinn's neck. Nonetheless, the door closed before he could get a clear look. He shook his head and assumed that it would be some sort of non-magical style clothing. He forgot about the matter and returned to his work.
Outside Elliot's office, Quinn started walking towards the manor's door. He looked at the ticket stub in his hand that showed today's date. August 25, 1994. A week before he had to leave for Hogwarts. Today, however, the day itself was of great importance.
'Sorry for lying, but I had to do it,' thought Quinn as he pocketed the ticket stub that was going to go unused.
Determination flashed through Quinn's eyes as he thought of what he was about to do and the possible repercussions that his actions might cause. Among such thoughts, Quinn wished that today went without a hitch, that nobody would know what he was about to do. Everybody would be better if that was the case.
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*Pop*
With a popping noise as if it was a plastic bag popping, Quinn's feet touched misty moor. He had apparated in a familiar place. His eyes immediately looked around to check for any living and observing presence; after carefully observing his surroundings along with the Human-presence-revealing spell (Homenum Revelio), Quinn concluded that he was alone in the deserted stretch.
He looked at a line of wooden posts that were placed consecutively creating a line. Between the consecutive posts there were broken barbed wires. When they had been intact they had formed a fence.
Quinn blinked and casted the Point-Me Charm In front of him, an arrow appeared pointing north. Then he set off across the deserted moor. He was unable to make out much through the mist, so he simply relied on the north-facing arrow to guide him. After about ten minutes, a small stone cottage next to a gate swam into focus. Beyond it, Quinn could make out the ghostly shapes of hundreds and hundreds of tents. They rose up to a slightly sloping large field. On the horizon, a dark forest could be seen.
He dispelled the Point-Me Charm, and stopped before he was too near to a stone cottage. The custom-made disillusionment charm he had made from his knowledge of sensory illusion magic covered his body and made him invisible to all five senses. After making sure that he was invisible, Quinn resumed walking and passed by the stone cottage, ignoring the muggle who lived inside and the ministry employee who hid in the cabin in case he asked too many questions and needed to obliviate him.
Quinn entered the gate of the campsite. He trudged up the misty field in the middle of long rows of tents. Most looked almost ordinary; their owners had clearly tried to make them as non-magical as possible. Some, though, slipped up by adding chimneys, bellpulls, or weather vanes. On a side note, there were tents so obviously magical that Quinn wondered if its owners were even trying to hide that they were magicals. Halfway up the field stood an extravagant silk like miniature palace, with several live peacocks tethered at the entrance. A little farther on, he passed a tent that had three floors and several turrets, and a short way beyond, there was a tent that had a front garden with a birdbath, sundial, and fountain.
'Showoffs,' thought Quinn. The blatant disregard of the Statute of Secrecy in this place made Quinn realise once again the huge disconnection there was between the magical and non-magical society. The law to separate the two communities had isolated the magical society so much that they didn't even know what was considered non-magical. An apparent fault from the education system failing to educate their students about the one thing they are supposed to hide from.
He reached the very edge of the wood at the top of the field and stared at the litter of magical tents blocking his vision of the horizon. Every four years, only one event would cause this many magicals to gather in one place, and that event was today. On August 18, 1994, magicals from the six continents gathered at Dartmoor, England, to attend the Quidditch World Cup, and today was the finals between Ireland and Bulgaria.
The man in the stone cabin that Quinn passed by, Mr. Roberts, owned and operated many campsites in the area, and one of those campsites had been booked by the British Ministry of Magic for the Quidditch World Cup. Quinn had come here because today was the day the Death Eaters would ravage the campsites and prey upon muggle-borns for sport.
Quinn looked up and wondered whether the Dark Mark would make an appearance. Barty Crouch Junior had been the one who had launched the Dark Mark to the sky over the campground in the original books.
Quinn knew Junior's backstory, and if the current events followed the original path, then he would be here at the finals, beneath an invisibility cloak under the Imperius Charm. Junior would regain control here and come upon the scene of Death Eaters destroying everything in their way. In response, he would get angry and cast the Dark Mark. His anger would stem from their lack of initiative in finding their master, which he yearned to do and yet was unable.
'An emotional, yet stupid decision. Bringing him here is foolish,' thought Quinn. Time made people slack, and it was the case in this situation.
He didn't blame Senior that much, though. It had been over a decade since he had kept his son holed up in the house. And only because of the continuous insistence of their house-elf, Winky, and his son's love for Quidditch, did Senior allow Junior to come to the finals.
Quinn didn't know if the events of the original books would occur today. He knew that Barty Junior was out of Azkaban because both Mrs. Crouch and Barty Junior were legally dead, which meant that the events of the original books were followed to some extent. However, he didn't know whether the Death Eaters would attack or if Barty Junior would be able to regain control of his body. There was a chance that things might go south, though. Because of that, Quinn was there.
'Let's see how many I can take down today,' thought Quinn. He sat down near one of the trees, still invisible, waiting for the Death Eaters to arrive.
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- (Scene Break) -
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The game was over, and people started to return to campsites from the stadium that had been set up by the Ministry. Raucous singing could be heard on the night air as he stepped back a bit into the woods, where the leprechauns' lantern's light couldn't reach as they kept shooting over his head, cackling and waving their lanterns.
'It's time,' thought Quinn, he turned himself visible again and started to remove his clothes. He removed all of his non-magical styled garments. Under them was stark white spandex that stuck close to Quinn's body. The spandex had white patches stuck all over: two on the chest (one on each pec), two on the abdomen, two on each arm (one above and below the elbow each), one on each of the back of his palms, four on each legs, one on each feet and, finally, three patches that covered his back.
Luckily, no one was there to see him, or Quinn would've died of sheer embarrassment. Fortunately, Quinn wouldn't be wearing only white spandex. He tapped his chest, and blue waves of energy traveled throughout the white fabric. After the wave traversed the entire material, the fabric changed.
The white transformed into multiple colors; green-brown, olive drab, dark chestnut, and fern green covered Quinn's body. The spandex that had been stuck to Quinn's body expanded and turned into cargo trousers and a hooded military-style jacket. All of this was over a black skin-tight full-sleeved shirt that covered his head, hiding all of his hair, and on the bottom below the cargo pants were black compression pants.
Quinn raised his hands and saw them covered in tactical gloves. If you looked down at his feet he had tactical boots, both in dark green camo that suited the night and the forest. Every inch of his body except his face's front was covered. And even his face was hidden beneath the shadow of the hood.
「Project Noir」
A project Quinn had launched in his second year, just a few days before Quinn had ventured into the Sin vault. The project had been put on hold by sin-Quinn, who didn't like the prospect of hiding himself. However, regular Quinn wanted his identity hidden whenever he desired, so he reinitiated the project. Furthermore, he had started researching and developing a rotation between his projects after the day he encountered in Hogsmeade the Novellus Accionites trying to kill first-gen magicals.
He had been lucky that day as no one identified him or shot a Revelio charm his way to disable his invisibility. But Quinn knew that luck was fickle. As such, he prepared a transformative set of tactile attire which Quinn would design to change according to his needs. The spandex and patches over the spandex held enough clothing to transform into practically anything Quinn wanted to wear: if Quinn wanted swimming trunks, the material would retract until he was wearing just trunks, or if he wished to don layers of winter clothing, the extra material inside the magically expanded patches would release the required material.
The version Quinn was wearing only held non-magical fabrics and didn't contain magic-resistant leathers because Quinn couldn't fit those materials into the designs. Those materials didn't interact with Quinn's magic and would malfunction. Sometimes, the fabric would eject out randomly. Quinn, personally, didn't like transformative clothing like that because they were unstable, and an ample enough magical interference would cause them to break down. Nonetheless, Quinn had managed to accomplish just enough resistance with charms so that this setup wouldn't malfunction.
However, for now, if for some reason Quinn's disillusionment was turned off, then his identity wouldn't be instantly revealed.
Suddenly, Quinn heard some commotion from the campsite.
'Time for the invisible vigilante to return.'
A plume of smoke appeared in his palm, a front mask appeared in front of his face. The gear was complete.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Quinn entered the campsite, his invisibility back on as he moved in the dark, unseen. He could only be noticed under the light of the torches as a negligible distortion, and that was only when Quinn sprinted.
Under the light of the few fires that were still burning, he could see people running away into the woods, opposite to the direction he was running towards. People fled en masse, running away from something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises similar to gunfire. Loud jeerings, roars of laughter, and drunken yells could be heard; then, a burst of intense green light appeared, illuminating the scene.
A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field. Quinn squinted at them... They had their heads under a hood, and their faces were masked, just like him.
High above them, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small.
More masked Death Eaters joined the marching group, laughing and pointing at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd became bigger. Once or twice Quinn saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder.
The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and Quinn recognised one of them. Mr. Roberts, the campsite manager. The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the marchers below flipped Mrs. Roberts upside down with his wand; her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous mounds, and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.
'They are alive,' thought Quinn in relief, and then he moved his head above and watched the smallest child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side.
'Good, good, good,' thought Quinn as he took in deep breaths. 'This is helping; this is clearly helping. These f**ckers are helping me... helping me to bring their doom.'
Emotions were a tricky factor in magic. A wizard or witch couldn't use emotions any time they desired; things weren't that simple. If a magical user wanted to draw upon the emotion of anger, but they were happy and didn't have a powerful enough source that would provoke anger, then they wouldn't be able to draw their wrath at all.
Any wizard or witch needed to feel the emotion to use said emotion. And currently, Quinn was brimming with rage. He wasn't a person with a solid moral compass and didn't mind inflicting pain to those who deserved it for his own avail, but the scene in front of him wasn't right even under the most loose morals.
Mr. Roberts and his family had been subjected to multiple memory spells because the magical population gathered here didn't understand how to act like the non-magicals. Because of the magical people's incompetence, an innocent family had their memories altered for a week just so that the wizarding society could enjoy a sports tournament.
Now, they were being levitated above and made a joke out of. The children were man-handled so roughly that Quinn feared that they would be injured, and this entire thing was making him feel so angry that the magic was bubbling with fury inside his body.
Quinn raised his hand, and the family of four stopped in midair; they stopped flopping around and became rigid. The Death Eaters that were puppeteering them stopped because the muggles they were playing were suddenly out of control, causing the entire march of Death Eaters to stop and stare up.
The Levitation Charm (Wingardium Leviosa) wouldn't levitate living objects, but there were spells created to levitate living beings. The problem with those Charms was that the target's internal magic interfered heavily with the control of the Charms. If a target's magic was more potent than the caster's, then the Charm wouldn't work correctly, or in some cases, outright fail without even working for a second.
The family of four didn't have magic, so they could be easily controlled, and Quinn's magic was leagues more potent than any Death Eater present in the campsite. Exhausting the core every day for nearly eleven years was nothing to sneeze at. And out of those eleven years, roughly half of the time had been when Quinn's body was in a flux of accelerated growth because of his physical age.
The Death Eaters saw the muggle family being floated away and tried to get them back in control, but their magical attempts were thwarted and snapped as if they were thin, dry branches.
"Shit! Why isn't this working? Hey! Help me out here," shouted a Death Eater, getting frustrated.
Multiple of them banded up together. However, they weren't able to get a hold of the family. It felt as if they were trying to oppose an unstoppable force. They could only watch as the four captives floated away from their reach.
"... What's happening?"
"How is this possible?"
"Why aren't our spells working?!"
The answer came to them in the form of a violet spell-light coming straight towards them. One of the less drunk Death Eaters pulled up a shield charm against the upcoming spell, but all that did was spread its effects. The violet spell-light came into contact with the transparent shield and didn't cut through it but created an immense explosion that blasted half a dozen Death Eaters.
"... Who is it?!" yelled one of the Death Eaters. All of them had their wands out, ready to curse the one who cast the spell.
The response was another two violet spell-lights screeching towards them. This time they were ready, and four Death Eaters in front pulled up their Shield Charms, but once again, the violet spells exploded and made them tumble like bowling pins.
The onslaught wasn't over; this time, the violet spell came from their left instead of the front. And it scared them because the intensity and size of the violet spell light were thrice as large as before. When the light came in contact with them, the Death Eaters were blasted away like they had been hit by a hippogriff at full speed.
Seeing that the Death Eater march was broken, Quinn moved in closer, and as he did, his hands showed in a pale icy-blue light that was capable of giving a chill to anyone who saw it. His steps were silent as a wild feline going in for a kill, his stone-grey orbs shining with a calm fury and his magic stirring, deadly.
Spells started to shoot out from the disorganised Death Eaters; they tried to take out anyone near them by making a barrage of attacks, but Quinn would simply swat them away like they weren't dangerous charges of destructive magic.
The Death Eaters then heard a voice. It was a throaty whisper, distorted beyond what could be perceived as human. It sounded like it came from just behind their ear, yet it seemed like it was everywhere, surrounding them like a blanket. It crept over them like vines of Devil's Snare, but instead of strangulating them, it told them a single word.
"Run."
Then hell broke loose as a dozen ice spikes whistled towards them. Screams filled among the Death Eaters as one of the spikes nearly tore an arm out of one of their members. Others weren't that lucky as some instantly lost their legs and arms as the ice spikes pierced through flesh and bone alike.
The voice once again sounded near them, like it was standing among them. Just like the ice spikes that tore through them, it was cold and triggered a dread inside them.
"Too late."
It was time for the hunters to be hunted.
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - Dressed in full camo-gear - in Silent Fury.
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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