Capítulo 94: Visits
A/N: Pat-reon: HelloDarkness07.
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"How come you didn't tell any of us about her? Hm? Aren't I your best friend, Mason?" Darla asks a couple days after my award ceremony, as we sit in my house, drinking firewhiskey.
Darla, Dorea, and even Ana had come to the Aves Manor to meet with me, and while we had been speaking for a couple hours now, just catching up, I knew that this meeting was decided upon to ask me about my wife, Selene.
The wife in question, meanwhile, was in Sanctuary, tending to our plants. Sigh, married life.
I chuckle, and say, "I apologise for not saying anything, Darla. I just.. I had way too much attention on me at the moment, I didn't want to accidentally endanger Selene by her association with me."
Ana downs another sip, and says, "Tell us how you met, because the interview didn't tell us much."
Smiling, I ask, "My, Ana, keep a little mystery in my life."
Rolling her eyes, Dorea says, "All of us know you're dying to tell the story, Mason. Don't be shy."
Chuckling, I take a sip of my drink, and say, "I was in Africa, soon after my capture at the hands of Hydra. I was still recovering, while staying at an Allied base. Selene was a nurse there, and we struck up a friendship thanks to our hidden Magical talents. We just.. gravitated towards each other, both of us knowing that the other was magical, but not able to say anything in public."
I hate lying, at least to my friends. But I wasn't going to tell everyone about my Time Travelling adventures, not when their minds aren't secure enough to protect that secret. They're good at Occlumency, better than most thanks to my Book that I'd given them when in school, but when it comes to actual powerhouses? Nah, they're tame.
"One night of drinking, sitting and cursing this war we were in, and we.. ended up kissing. It was a sloppy, drunk kiss, not anything special, but it paved the way for us to.. do more. Apparition and my portals meant that we did not stay away from each other for long, and within a year, we realised we loved each other. A lot."
"When I lost my right to become a Healer, officially, Selene comforted me, helped me move on from it, and I.. I just couldn't help but ask her if she'll marry me. She said yes, and we married in private. She didn't have any family, and my family, you guys were all busy. Darla with her Auror work, Dorea in her Alchemy, and Ana in her Foe Glass." I say, finishing my tale of how I married Selene.
Snorting, Dorea says, "You just didn't want to invite any of us, you wanted it to be a special occasion only between the two of you."
I raise my glass, and say, "Guilty. But can you blame me? I was.. paranoid, is probably the right word. Hydra was gone, but the muggles were still looking for me. They still are, to be honest. And Grindelwald was inciting even more carnage all around the world. I just didn't want to take risks."
Darla clears her throat, and says, "Whatever it is, I am happy for you, Mason. We all are." She then holds my hand over the table, and asks, "But when are you introducing her? Don't think I didn't realise she wasn't here today, when we told you we were coming."
I shake my head with a smile, and say, "Soon, don't worry. Let the excitement of the end of the wars die down, and I will invite you all for lunch."
The girls nod, and I can't help but smile at their love for me. And I still love them too. It may have been two thousand years since we had last been together, at least for me, but I still love them. I missed them, I missed Dorea's blunt teasing, Darla's concern, and Ana's weird, but loving behaviour.
And thanks to my amazing memory, I could pretend that it hasn't been 2000 years since I'd seen them.
"To Mason, and his miraculous return!" Dorea says, raising her glass, now once more full of Firewhiskey.
"Hey, what do you mean 'miraculous'?" I exclaim, as I raise my glass even still.
The girls chuckle, and we throw our heads back with the drink. Yes, I missed them, and I am glad I am back here.
---
Dorea Black, resident of a simple two floor house in South London, is woken up in the middle of the night by a sound of something moving in her room. Putting her hand underneath the pillow, she pulls her wand out and points it at the study table that's next to her bed.
But she sees nothing that could have made that noise. Just her study table, and a dozen or so books which she didn't remember putting on the table.
Now completely awake thanks to the foreign books sitting in her room, Dorea sits up properly and waves her wand over the stack of books, trying to see if there are any curses on them. But no matter what she tried, she couldn't find a hint of any spell on them, let alone any curse.
The books were simple hardcover notebooks, made up of thin parchment pieces bound together, and had an Egyptian symbol on top of it. Along with the symbol, there was the Roman number 1, or I. Similarly, she could tell that all the other books had different numbers on them too.
"How the fuck did this get here?" Dorea mumbles, as she picks up the first book.
Even before she opens it, however, she sees something drop down on the ground, having been kept between this book and the one underneath it.
A letter.
She picks it up, and opens it with a flourish to read it. It said, "The books give a complete study on the subject of Alchemy. From transmuting one element to another, to Creating the Universal Solvent, these books will help you do it all.
PS: The books need to be read in series. Unless you finish reading the first book, the second won't open. Have fun!"
It had no name, and even the handwriting wasn't recognisable to her. But Dorea somehow knew exactly who sent those books. Or who brought those books.
Dorea smiles, as she opens the first book and reads a page. Sure enough, there was the introduction to Alchemy, and the prerequisites for learning it.
Taking a quill and parchment, Dorea crafts a letter, and sends it off with her owl.
In it, she says, "Dear Mason, thank you for your generous gift. But the next time, knock on the door and meet me like a regular person. Do not sneak into my room like a pervert. Love, Dorea."
---
In the same house, in another room, another person is woken up by a sound of tapping occurring near her. Similar to her sister, Cassiopeia pulls her wand from underneath her pillow, and points it at the direction the sound was coming from.
Unlike her sister, however, Cassiopeia doesn't even wait to be completely awake before she sends a highly dangerous curse flying in the direction of the taps. The rotting curse flies towards the shadowy part of her room, and stops mid air, the tapping now silent.
Cassiopeia looks on, wide eyed, as sleep leaves her body. Her hand starts shaking out of fear, as she stands up and takes a few steps back, wand still pointing at the place her curse was floating in.
"Cassiopeia Violetta Black." A voice calls out from the shadowed part of the room. There's a click, and suddenly, the lamp next to her bed lights up, making Cassiopeia jump. Her curse, which had still remained floating, slowly disappears into a mist, the magic within it dissipating, as the voice once again says, "Sit. I have a proposal for you, which I assure you, you will like."
The light, however, doesn't penetrate the shadowed area, making Cassiopeia realise that there was some sort of spell at work. And while she could tell that the voice belonged to a man, she couldn't recognise who it belonged to, or what the man's age was.
"Who are you? How did you get here?" Cassiopeia asks, her wand hand shaking a bit less now.
Whoever it was, he got here, inside the house, without tripping any of the protective enchantments around it. The Black Family wards, which almost everyone is afraid of even now, were ignored by this person as if they were nuisances. And she knew that if he wanted her dead, she would have been dead.
The man chuckles, and says, "I find you amusing, Cassiopeia. You know that there's nothing you can do to me, and yet, you still keep your wand pointed at me, you still ask me questions when your own life is in danger."
Suddenly, there's more light, as the shadows covering the corner disperse, and Cassiopeia is frozen in place at the sight in front of her.
"Aves?" She whispers, horrified. And she had reason to be, the person in front of her defeated Grindelwald in single combat. Granted Grindelwald was weakened by fighting Dumbledore, and even still Aves had to trick the man. But still, even weakened, Gellert Grindelwald was not a man to be trifled with, let alone defeat.
And this man was also one that Cassiopeia had tried to manipulate, mentally control, into owing her a favour. Which.. she had failed, and if the smug look on his face was anything to go by, he remembered it too.
"Nice to see you remember me, Cassiopeia." Aves says, casually tapping his fingers on the arm of the chair he was sitting on, which.. she didn't own.
Cassiopeia looks at him warily, with a healthy amount of fear, while trying to think of something to flee. Dorea! Her little sister was asleep just a room away, and Cassiopeia didn't know if Aves would do anything to her.
Friends or not, Cassiopeia would not take a risk with her sister's life.
"What do you want, Aves?" She asks, finally.
The man smiles, and says, "As I said, I have a proposal for you. So, sit. Down."
This time, she finds herself moving before she even knows it's happening, and sits down on her chair next to the study table. The chair spins around, with her on top of it, and makes it so she's facing Aves.
She widens her eyes at his feats of Magic, at controlling her without even a hint of using Mind Magic, and stays frozen in place.
He then waves his hand, conjuring some tea for himself, and says, "Now, before you ask me any more stupid questions, shut up, and listen. I have a job offer for you. Something I know you will like, since it will appeal to the knowledge hungry side of yours, along with the manipulative bitch that I know you are."
"What is the job?" Cassiopeia asks, ignoring the insults he threw at her. Why be offended when she knows she can't do anything to him? She didn't even have anything she could blackmail him with!
Aves smiles, and says, "I am creating an organization, one that will infiltrate the muggle government, to protect the Statute of Secrecy from the other side, and keep a close eye on what muggles know about Magic, and what they do about it. And I want you, dear Cassiopeia, to lead the organization."
Cassiopeia widens her eyes in surprise, and says, "Hefty goals, but impossible, I'm afraid. Muggles already know far too much about the Magical World. They have an organization that's already keeping an eye on us, waiting for an opportunity to strike."
And it was something she hated with all her being. An organization of muggles dared to 'keep an eye' on Wizards? And there was nothing she could do, because no one would believe her.
Her own family didn't believe her when she tried to tell them! Cousin Arcturus even scoffed at her 'delusional behavior', saying muggles don't have the mental capabilities to organize like that! And this was after the War had begun!
"Ah, yes, I know about your uncle Phineas and his run in with the MIS." Aves says, as he keeps that damn smile on his face, making her wonder how he even knows about it.
Phineas Black, her father's older brother, was an avid supporter of Muggle rights. He spoke up in favour of muggleborns and muggles in the Wizengamot, and was promptly disinherited from the family. The family discredited him, and made him lose his Wizengamot seat, which he had earned through his Troll hunting deeds.
And then, he was approached by some muggles, who tried to manipulate him into joining them. Being a Black, her Uncle Phineas had seen their manipulation coming from a mile away, and he killed them all in a fight that saw him injured. He fled, and then disappeared from the face of the Earth.
Until 10 years ago, when she received something from him. On her birthday 10 years ago, Phineas sent her his journals, and all the Blackmail material he had collected over the years of his disappearance. Alas, he didn't know anything else about the group of muggles that came after him. She did know that he had died, his letter to her said so, but no one knew how it happened.
"MIS?" Cassiopeia asks, because she didn't know what it was.
Aves nods, and says, "The muggles your uncle fled from, those who wanted to recruit him. They're called the MIS. Magical Intelligence Service. They recruit Wizards or squibs that have been scorned by the Wizarding World. They enslave the scorned people with vows and oaths, and manipulate them into keeping the Wizarding World.. contained, and under their watchful eye."
"So if you know about them, then you know why your project can't work." Cassiopeia says, wondering if Aves had gotten too arrogant with his defeat of Grindelwald.
The smile on Aves's face widens, and he says, "My dear Cassiopeia, the MIS is not a problem anymore. They were taken over by my people half an hour ago."
"What?!" Cassiopeia exclaims, having not seen that coming at all.
Aves nods, and says, "Just like they did with your uncle, the MIS approached me to recruit me into their shite. When manipulation failed, they tried to force me into slavery, and well.. I took offense to that. I bid my time, made them believe I was trapped in their vows, and I took over the organization. Their leaders are all dead, replaced by my people through Human transfiguration, and I have already begun changing the goals of the organization into something.. more acceptable. I just need you to fill the position of the Organisation Head."
"You keep saying 'your people', I didn't know you even had people." Cassiopeia says, fishing for some explanation.
Smiling, Aves says, "My people.. Unspeakables of the Department of Mysteries. That's a tale for another time, I'm afraid. But let's just say that they too tried to manipulate me and paid the price."
Cassiopeia opens her mouth, but snaps it shut once again. What could she even say? That she didn't believe that he could take over the Department of Mysteries? What was next, the Ministry? ICW?
Did he defeat Grindelwald to get rid of a competition in his own conquest of the world?
"I am not a Dark Lord, you know." The amused voice of Aves brings her back to the real world.
Shaking her head, she says, "You have your.. Unspeakables, don't you? Why do you need me then?"
Was she tempted by the job? Of course, she was! She was being offered a leadership position in a muggle organization that would be a Spy organization geared towards keeping the Wizarding World safe from the muggle one. Of course she was tempted!
Information gathering was something she revelled in, and doing so under the nose of muggles? Rule the organization that pushed her uncle, banished from the family or not, into hiding away from the entire world? She would enjoy it.
But why her? That was what she didn't know.
Aves sighs, as he leans back on his chair and lifts his legs up. A stool forms underneath his legs, as he keeps both his feet on them, the show of strength not lost on her, and he says, "The Unspeakables of the Department of Mysteries are many things, and yes, spies is one of them. Alas, they are not suitable for the leadership position. You, however, you are."
Cassiopeia could understand that. She knew how the stooges in the Ministry of Magic are, which is why she had refused to work there after graduation. But..
"What's the catch? Say I accept the job, become the leader of this MIS. What will my duties be, what will the organization do, and what will I have to do?" Cassiopeia asks, not immediately accepting the highly tempting offer.
Aves smirks, and says, "The duties and responsibilities? Well, the first part will be recruitment of Wizards, Witches, squibs, and the muggles in the know of the Wizarding World, like parents and siblings of the Muggleborns. The main part, however, will be safeguarding the Statute of Secrecy. Keeping an eye on the Muggle government leaders and the scientists under their employ, killing threats to the magical world, erasing memories when killing is not an option. It will entirely rest in your own hands, Cassiopeia. I will not be interfering in your work, unless completely necessary."
"That can't be it, you won't just give me such an important position out of the goodness of your heart. There must be some catch." Cassiopeia didn't believe for one moment that the boy she tried manipulating would let her have any power over the muggle world, without a catch.
Aves chuckles, and says, "Well, there is a catch, yes. You will sign a contract agreeing to the conditions I put forth, regarding how the organization should be handled. And you will send me honest, detailed reports every month. Other than that, yes, you will be left to rule in your new position, without any interference from me. But.. do realize that if I don't like what you're doing that you will receive a visit from me, and it won't be as pleasant as this one, I assure you."
Cassiopeia scowls, hearing the unspoken threat loud and clear. She says, "I want to read the contract before I sign anything. And I want the option to reject the offer, or quit in the future, if I find it not to my liking. And.. and, I want a vow from you that you won't come to kill me if I reject or quit in the future."
Aves smiles, and with a wave of his hand conjures a stack of papers on her study table. He says, "Enjoy. If you accept, the instructions to get to the Organization headquarters are on the last page. Oh, and I don't suppose I need to mention that this is not something you can tell anyone, even your sister?"
"Afraid of Dorea, Aves?" Cassiopeia snarks, as she picks the papers up to read.
Aves snorts, and says, "My friends have an opinion about me, I just don't want that to change anytime soon. Besides, when you meet one of the people the MIS had recruited only a month ago, you will want to keep the matter away from your sister anyway."
"Who?" Cassiopeia asks, looking up.
Smiling, as the shadows somehow rise up from the ground to swallow him whole, Aves says, "Your squib brother.. Marius Black."
Cassiopeia freezes in her place, her hands clenching the papers tightly. She now had even more motivation to take this job, the muggles dared to go after her brother!
Yes, Aves was right. Her sister was too innocent to be told about this. If she learned about Marius and what he almost had the misfortune of becoming, she would be devastated. She might even snap and stop being the loving Dorea, one who has a love for all things Alchemy and Mason Aves.
Sleep forgotten, Cassiopeia turns her chair around to properly sit at the study table, and begins reading. As she read, she couldn't help but feel that this job would be worth it. While feeding her hunger for political power, it would also allow her to feel as if she was actually doing something for the Wizarding World.
A manipulative bitch she might be, as Aves put it, but she did want the Wizarding World to survive against the muggle one. And as the Muggles just showed, when it comes to war, they have far more power than Wizards.
---
Private Lorraine Smith of the US Armed Forces, the assistant to Colonel Phillips. The War was over, and so was her need for being a female in the army. And so, she was summarily fired as soon as the SSR was disbanded, by the brass.
Lorraine moved to New Jersey, where her father owned a diner, and began helping him as a waitress. But she was still Private Lorraine Smith. She was still a trained field Agent of the US Army, she still craved action, and she still suffered from the occasional nightmares from the War.
After another such nightmare, Lorraine woke up one morning to a letter in her letter box.
"42.7891713, -106.8341188. 1400, 0610. -PC."
This was all the letter said. Thankfully for Lorraine, it was all she needed to read before she memorized the numbers and burned the letter down. She recognised the handwriting, of course she did. And her superior Agent needed her to get to some location in.. Wyoming she was guessing, and she will get there in time.
6th June, just two weeks from now to find the place, check for traps, and then meet with the one that called her. She could do that.
---
Elsewhere, a few more people found similar letters in their own places of residences. Timothy Dugan, Jacques Dernier, Gabe Jones, James Falsworth, Jim Morita, Colonel Chester Phillips, and even Howard Stark, they all received a letter with the coordinates in the handwriting of Agent Peggy Carter.
Meanwhile, Agent Peggy Carter of the SSR, woke up to a letter in her own stack. The letter gave the same coordinates as the other letters did, only this one was addressed by the initials "CP."
---
A/N: Cassiopeia will be the Head of the MIS, whose goals will be safeguarding the Statute of Secrecy, and making sure the British Muggles don't conspire against the British wizards.
Why Cassiopeia? Because he knows she has the qualities necessary for the role. She's devious, and won't hesitate to use the imperius if it fits her goals. The contracts will ensure that she doesn't endanger the Wizarding World indirectly through her actions, and Mason will keep an eye on her.
As you can tell by the last part, there is going to be a reunion in the next chapter. Sorry for the boring chapters, but there will be a couple more such boring chapters to set the future path of this story.
DOM is dealt with. MIS is dealt with. Now just one current threat remains, after which the story will be having a big time skip to one of the Marvel plots.
Thank you for your support! Tata!
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