Chương 70: Fawley and Whithorn
Henry watched Alex scamper off with Cedric with a smile on his face. He was excited that his son had joined a club, even if it was a dueling one. Often he worried that Alex was trying to grow up too fast, and that he was rushing to fulfill responsibilities that he was too young to handle.
Speaking of children, Henry turned to see Sasha and Rebbeca entertaining Athena. With her collar on, Athena appeared to be a large house cat: except no one could be fooled into thinking that she was mundane with her black fur and golden strips.
Athena was lazily perched on her back on Sasha's lap, swiping her paws curiously at the shiny rock tied to a piece of string that Rebecca was teasing her with.
"Where is Alex?" Camille asked.
Henry turned to his blond-haired wife and smiled, "He had to run something to his locker. He'll be back soon."
Camille snorted, "He'd better. Anna will kill him if he misses her match."
Henry laughed at the thought. Sometimes it seemed like Anna wanted to strangle Alex when she sent out signals, only for them to be ignored because Alex had his head in a book.
Being able to enlighten Alex about the two girls who were competing for his affections made Henry's day. Too often, Alex seemed not to need any fatherly advice, seeing his face go red in embarrassment had been a treat to see.
As time went on, the stands began to fill with parents from all around the world. Each was hoping that their child would make it to the end and seize victory.
While waiting for Alex to return, Henry heard a sound that shook him to his soul. Athena yowled a heart wrenching sound that screamed of rage and pain. It was a magically penetrating sound that filled the enormous stadium and all eyes turned to seek the source.
Henry turned his head to find Athena on the ground and her fur standing on end. Her vertical emerald pupils began glowing and were wide with fear and fury.
Pure magic began emanating from Athena in waves. Her next yowl turned into a roar as the collar hiding her nature snapped and revealed her wings and horns.
Camille gripped her husband's arm in fear. Not of Athena changes, but what her actions indicated.
The surrounding seats began to empty as people's instincts warned them that the winged cat was a danger.
Athena let out another scream as a pulse of magic shot through her, and she began to grow. By the time it was over, she had doubled in size, her wings and horns had matched her growth.
While she was growing, John ran over in a panic. "Where's Alex? The only reason why Athena would act like that is if he was in grave danger."
"He and Cedric went to his locker." Henry rapidly explained.
"Something must have happened to them," John said.
Upon hearing that something had happened to his son, but not realizing the full danger, Amos Diggory snapped, "What kind of show is the United Dueling League (U.D.L) running here?"
Henry looked at John with the most severe expression that had ever crossed his face. "Tell me the truth, do you think this was him?"
Looking just as dangerous, John thought about it for a moment, "I would be surprised if he did something so public, but we can't rule it out."
John turned to Camille and said, "Honey, take the girls back to the ship, then use the cabinet to go home."
For a minute, it looked like Camille was going to argue, but then she countered, "I'll leave them with your Mum, and then I'm coming right back."
Her eyes blaze defiantly, daring her husband to refuse her the right to search for her son. But, Henry nodded, "Tell her to take the girls to the Macmillan clan."
Not waiting for another second, Camille turned and grabbed Sasha and Rebbeca and started pulling them away. The twins were still confused about what was happening and were asking questions about Athena and Alex as they were dragged away.
Before they could do anything else, a tall dark-hair enforcer for the U.D.L. approached their group with his wand out. "I'm going to have to ask you to remove that creature. Before it does anything dangerous."
Henry looked at the enforcer with disgust, and thundered, "My son is a competitor in this tournament. This is his familiar, and she is only acting like this because his life is in danger. Now, instead of worrying about my son's familiar, do your damn job and find my son!"
Athena was finished with waiting and took off determined to find Alex. Without saying another word, Henry spun and stormed off behind her with the rest of the Fawleys, Spinnets and the U.D.L. enforcer
behind.
When they arrived at the door to the Silver Spears, John didn't hesitate. Wordlessly, he pointed his wand at the wooden door, which opened with such force that it was almost knocked off the hinges.
"I must say that this is unusual. I assure you these rooms are protected. " The U.D.L enforcer protested.
Ignoring the protest, everyone poured inside the room. Henry approached Alex's locker with his wand drawn. He murmured, "Revelio
The space in front of his locker seemed to distort and twist. Amos asked, "What on earth is that?"
Henry turned, glared at the U.D.L enforcer, and spat with cold fury, "That is the effect a portkey leaves on its surroundings."
The enforces brown eyes widened when he saw the distortions. "I have to report this to my superiors immediately."
"Can we use it to find where they were taken?" Amos wondered.
"No," Henry bitterly replied. "Not only that, but the evidence will be gone within the hour."
John hugged Henry, "It doesn't matter where the portkey transported them. Athena can find him anywhere. I swear to you, we will find him."
"Yeah, but they could be anywhere. If Athena is acting like this, how much time do you think Alex has left?" Henry gloomily replied.
Silence filled the room as no one wanted to voice their thoughts. It could take them days to track them down.
Eventually, Amos spoke up, "Umm. did anyone see where Athena went?"
While everyone had been talking, Athena had already slinked out of the room, determined to find Alex. Once outside, she took off into the sky, not willing to wait for the slow humans.
It didn't take long for everyone to make it outside. Henry pointed to a small dot in the west, "There she is, she is already tracking Alex."
John let out a sigh of relief. A small part of him had been worried that Alex was on the Flying Dutchman, but Athena was flying in the opposite direction.
He turned to his wife and said, "I need you to stay on the boat and wait for my signal. Henry and I will follow the trail on brooms."
"If Athena can tell where he is, why don't we apparate with her? Surely that would be faster than flying." Amos questioned.
John shook his head, "Bad idea, there is too much magic pouring off Athena. If you were to try and apparate with her, there is an excellent chance that you will splinch yourself and end up missing a piece of your body."
Before they could leave, Alicia pleaded with her parents, "Let me go with them, Alex and Cedric are my friends."
Alicia's father, Abasi, shot her down. "Absolutely not, whatever happened to them, it's too dangerous for you to get involved."
Alicia's eyes narrowed as a rebellious look on her face appeared on her face. Playing the role of the peacemaker, her mother, Zaliki, intervened in the argument. "How about I accompany them? If Alex is hurt, having a healer on site will be useful."
"Fine," Alicia grumbled.
Hearing that a healer was coming along, Henry interjected, "Thank you."
Zaliki waved away his thanks, "That is what healers are here for."
John, Henry, Amos, and Zaliki took off on brooms following the trail of Athena. Half a day later, there was no sign of Athena slowing down. Amos yelled over the wind, "Where could they possibly be?"
John pulled up next to him and replied, "Since we're dealing with portkeys, they could be anywhere."
Soon, Nefret sent a message that Camille was ready to join the search party, so Henry apparated back to the ship and grabbed her.
As they continued to follow Athena, it became apparent that she wasn't going to stop for the night. Luckily, Camille was a master potioneer and had come prepared. Soon, everyone's energy was restored as Camille gave them potions to keep them awake and their energy up.
The following evening, as they neared the coast, John angrily swore, "Damn, they must be on another continent. If I had known that, we could have used my ship and saved almost two days."
John sent a message to Nefret to meet them at the coast. When the two parties met up, everyone was exhausted. While everyone rested, Nefret guided the ship though the underwater pathways. Going through the routes wasn't as fast as normal because the paths didn't follow a normal route. The ship needed to surface to allow Athena to get Alex's bearing. Soon, it became apparent that they were heading towards China.
On the morning of the third day, the group started moving through Asia. By nightfall, Athena's panic was increasing. As she beat her wings ferociously, energy began building near her horns. With a loud scream, a bolt of lightning was ejected from her horns and struck the ground with a large explosion. Camille looked at Henry with tears in her eyes. They understood that the more Athena panicked, the closer to death Alex was.
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, Athena seemed to calm slightly as she abruptly changed directions. Soon, Nefret sent word. Alex was alive. He and Cedric had been found by the Chinese Ministry of Magic and had been taken to the hospital in Beijing.
Whithorn's POV the night after Alex's disappearance.
In the depths of the Flying Dutchman, seven seats were ringed in a u-shape, out of which four of were empty. Declan Whithorn occupied the seat in the middle. His previous black hair now had more white than black. Even though age had taken its toll on him, his limbs were still full of strength, and his icy blue eyes were glaring at two people in front of him.
"You did what?" He coldly asked.
The older of the two whined, "I was just teaching the brat a lesson. He embarrassed me last summer when my son had to be publicly sent to the mental ward. I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like a competitor hasn't ever been ported away at the last minute."
Delcan rubbed his head like a headache was developing, "You idiot, your actions may have started a war."
"What do you mean?" Delvin whined. "I just used one of the old portkeys that you use for drop offs. From where I found it, it hadn't been used in a while."
"Did it not occur to your tiny brain that there is a reason why we hadn't been using that portkey?" Declan replied scathingly. "Ten years ago, a Nundu took possession of the cave on the other end. We haven't used it since. The boy is most likely dead. "
Turning to the younger of the two, Declan sneered, " It seems as though you were too weak to handle a boy two years your junior and got your daddy to solve all your problems."
Michael paled under his grandfather's scrutiny, "I didn't have anything to do with it. I was planning to deal with him myself."
Declan studied Michael's face searching for the truth. Finally, he grunted, "Well, at least your father hasn't completely ruined you."
"I didn't know," Delvin complained.
Declan sneered in disgust, "That makes it worse. If you had tried to kill him deliberately, I would have been annoyed at how you did it, but I would have respected you more."
Delvin pleaded, "It not like anyone will discover what I did. I covered my tracks, I'm sure of it."
Declan snorted in disgust, "Let's put aside the issue that the son of a Ministry of Magic Official was most likely killed in your idiotic stunt. Do you think not being able to prove it was us, will stop the Fawley family from acting?"
"What could that washed up family possibly do to us?" Delvin complained.
Declan heavily sighed as he leaned back into his chair, "You know, you just proved your stupidity and confirmed I was right to leave you to your own devices in London."
Pulling out a file from his robe, Declan threw it at Delvin and shouted, "What can they possibly do? Their family is well connected. The boy's grandmother sits on the board of governors at Hogwarts and routinely rubs elbows with some of the most influential people in Britain. Not to mention, her brother is the head of the Mcmillian clan."
As Delvin opened his mouth to protest, Declan pointed his wand at him and shouted, "Silencio."
"You've lost your right to speak," Declan sneered. "Now, where was I? Oh yes. Now, let's talk about the boy's uncle, who in the last twenty years has been building a world-spanning organization called 'The revenants' that rivals mine. Is that what you claim is a washed up family?"
Worry started creeping in on Michael's face as he heard his grandfather rant, "Surely, they can't do anything to us.".
Declan turned to his right, where a small beady-eyed goblin with a hooked nose sat in one of the seven seats, indicating that he was one of Declan's six lieutenants that ran the syndicate. "What do you think, Nadluk?"
Showing his pointed teeth, Nadluk replied, "After running the numbers, I calculate that our chances of victory are 71 percent."
The newest member of the seven was a brutal, wolfish-looking, one-eyed wizard with a scar running down from his forehead to his jaw named Graham. When he heard the numbers, he snorted, "If our chance of victory is so high, maybe your bumbling son did us a favor. We should put John Fawley down and absorb the rest of the Revenants into our ranks."
Delvin's eyes lit up upon hearing one of the seven speak up in his favor. But, his hopes were quickly dashed when Declan asked, "Nadluk, why don't you inform Graham about the consequences should we go to war and win, what would our casualties look like?"
Nadluk shot a toothy sly grin towards the newest member of the council for not thinking it through. "I calculate our casualties to be around sixty percent, and that's assuming no Ministry of Magic gets involved, which they most surely will. That will only be the beginning of our troubles. With our syndicate weakened, vultures will begin to circle and try to pick us apart piece by piece. Also, Graham's assumption that we could absorb the Revenants is wrong. I have been trying to get a member of their organization to come to our side, but they strongly resist any attempt I've made. Even upon capture, they choose death rather than to betray their own. That kind of loyalty is impressive."
Delvin's eyes widened with shock when he heard everything about John Fawley's organization. Declan coldly remarked, "Yes, now you begin to see what you set in motion with your rash actions."
Michael asked, "Surely, there must be something we can do to stop this."
Declan looked at the ceiling as his mind picked apart the problem. "The first thing to do is to insulate us from the disappearances. Should anyone be able to trace this back to us, our problems will start to snowball. I've already contacted your aunt, who runs our operations in North America. She will help us control the narrative of the story, she has people inside the Magical Congress of the United States of America that will help us."
Looking at his son in disappointment, Declan demanded, "Tell me every move you did so I can start cleaning up your mess."
Once Declan heard the whole story, he nodded, "I can work with this."
Now that he had a plan, he shot his son a withering look and commanded, "Go back to Britain and run your broom company. I know it will be hard, but try not to do anything stupid."
Turning to his grandson, Declan motioned for Michael to follow, "I think it's time I took a greater hand in your education. I sense potential within you, and I don't want you to end up as useless as your father."
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Jmwells2003
Jmwells2003 I think I've always been pretty honest about how Alex was becoming less and less impacted by his previous life. I wanted to create a uniuqe reincarnation story of my own. As for the concerns of major personilty shift. As the author I saying don't worry about that. Had this happened to Alex when he was a child it would have major impact, but he has lived thirteen almost fourteen years now and created new memories and his personality is solid. Now, as for what he does remember, he still knows whats coming. Not only has Alex spent hours planning for the future, but he has his journals as well. He also, remembers thinking about his past life, so he sort of knows what happened to him. But, now its like almost reading a story that happened to him, I will explore this in the future.
Now to the good stuff, I know I implied Michael was behind everything, but it was always going to be his father. Alex can have blinders on sometime and he jumped to the conclusion that it was Michael, partly because they met right before but also because he had been expecting payback. He just didn't imagine that it would come from Michael's vain father who he had embarrassed. This was in interesting and hard chapter for me to write, I've spent so much time writing from Alex's point of view that shifting was difficult. I hope you guys enjoyed the first peak the Declan Whithorn and his syndicate. Comment below with your thoughts.
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