Harry Potter Squib Tales Chapter 83: Sirius Black, Dog of War (Part 1) (Patreon)

Chapter 83: Sirius Black, Dog of War Part 1

Sirius POV

“Flight RA991 to Kigali International Airport is now boarding!” a pleasant young woman’s voice called out over the speakers. “All passengers, please proceed to the gate and prepare your tickets!”

Hearing that, Sirius yawned and stretched before standing up and making his way through the London Heathrow airport towards his flight’s gate, his carry-on backpack thrown over his shoulder.

He showed off his ticket to the lovely attendant was ushered to the First-class seats he’d booked for himself, smiling a little at her which caused the young woman to flush.

‘Yup, I still got it!’ he thought with amused satisfaction as he walked onto the aircraft.

Sirius mentally went over the information Ed had provided for him as he boarded the plane to Kigali, capital of Rwanda.

Based on what he’d seen in his ‘visions’, Ed had said that the genocide would begin early in the morning on April 7th, following the assassination of Rwandan president, Juvénal Habyarimana the day before when his plane would be shot down.

The odds of it being a plot orchestrated by Hutu extremists was high, according to Ed. After all, Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, the next in line, was murdered in her home along with her husband and ten Belgian guards by the so-called Presidential Guard almost immediately afterwards. And the Presidential Guard were under the authority of Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, head of Rwanda’s military.

And, considering he would immediately take control of the government under the guise of heading the ‘Crisis Committee,’ it was obvious to anyone with a brain that the colonel had his fingers in this entire scheme. He might not have given the order to shoot down the president’s plane, but he had taken advantage of it.

Worse, though, were the atrocities that would be committed by the Rwandan Army under the colonel’s orders. Rape and murder would affect nearly a million innocent people according to Ed.

The plan, then, was simple: infiltrate the Prime Minister’s protection detail and protect her, keeping her alive and help her take control of the country. Unfortunately, they couldn’t stop the assassination of the president.

Partly because they had no idea where the shooting would take place, or where the weapons used to do so would be hidden. But also because the president was partly responsible for delaying and enacting certain laws which exacerbated the racial tensions in the country. Better to have him die as fate intended, or so Ed claimed.

Sirius wasn’t exactly a fan of that idea, but he agreed that they couldn’t really scour the entire country searching for the anti-aircraft missiles. Not without advanced Divination at least, and the only one in their group who could pull something like that off would be Ed and his rune-bones. Protecting the prime minister was, logically, the easiest thing to do since her location was known and it could be fortified with wards and enchantments.

The possibility that rogue African witches and wizards were involved in the uprising was also unfortunately quite high. Ed hadn’t seen any in his visions, but with the state of Africa and the way certain Muggleborn mages in the continent had begun acting, it was quite likely he’d end up fighting a few who wanted to take advantage of the chaos that would arise in Rwanda.

As he waited for the plane to take off, Sirius decided to get some more reading done. There was a lot of complicated history lessons on why the genocide would even happen, and Ed had made sure he had a book’s worth of information to go over so he understood the situation on the ground.

‘Jeez, the situation is a lot trickier than I thought,’ Sirius grunted as he read the history docket Ed had compiled for him on Rwanda’s history.

Three tribes had once lived in the region now known as Rwanda: Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa. The Tutsi had been the dominant ethnic group, led by the Tutsi monarchy which took over in the mid-18th century, and then were supported by Germany and Belgium during the Scramble for Africa in the 19th and 20th Century. But then the Hutu tribe took over after World War 2, which led to many Tutsi becoming exiles and refugees in neighboring countries.

Now, it was clear that both Tutsi and Hutu had problems. Neither group was without fault. The Tutsi monarchy had forced the Hutu into subservient roles, stole land from them, then sold it back to them in exchange for labor and other things. The Tutsi had also crushed rebels with help from European armies. But on the other hand, the Hutu had seized power over the country through riots and arson against Tutsi homes due to false rumors and fear mongering. They then drove the Tutsi king out using Belgian aide, who’d sided with the Hutu due to sympathies for their downtrodden and oppressed nature. Ever since, it was the Hutu on top, and they simply repeated what was done to them upon the Tutsi leading to, guess what! More political and racial tension throughout the country.

The dossier also included information on Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, though it was a bit more limited, but still contained plenty of useful facts. She was the first female Prime Minister of Rwanda and while a Hutu was a firm moderate. When she’d been the Minister of Education she’d done away with certain racial quotas and let pure merit determine who should get spots for scholarships. This made the Hutu hardliners and extremists furious with her, because they had benefited the most from the crooked educational quotas.

She also had quite a bit of antagonism with President Juvénal Habyarimana, neither liking the other. He’d even tried to get her to resign from her post, but she’d been kept in her position by the combined efforts of the cabinet and the political parties.

But there were other, external pressures on the country that were exacerbating the issues. Neighboring countries were suffering from an influx of Tutsi refugees who’d fled Hutu reprisals in Rwanda, which naturally made them unhappy with the Rwandan government.

Of course, there were a lot of problems that’d been created when the Belgians withdrew from the area. Plenty of industries in the country were also trying to play catch up with the rest of the First World nations, but a lot of it was still focused on a semi-agrarian, cash crop-based economy. Plenty of coffee, tea, and sugar was grown in Rwanda, but it was a fragile system leftover from the colonial days that would absolutely collapse if conflict broke out, bringing economic ruin to the country.

‘Really seems like a lot of problems can be traced back to Belgium and Europe in general,’ Sirius mused, disquieted by the sheer amount of information Ed had gathered on the troubles plaguing the tiny country. ‘And not just in Africa.’

Though thinking about Ed’s help caused Sirius to wonder about what the heck he was. It was obvious to the Animagus that the eldest son of Erroneous Hunch was not a Seer. What he had was too clear-sighted. But Sirius had no idea about what else it could be. Time travel? No, the only known method was the Time-Turners, and those only went back 72 hours at most and couldn’t alter the past or future.

He’d searched the Black library for weeks trying to uncover something that could explain it, and the only hint was a brief mention of ‘Those Chosen by Death could do many things beyond the ken of mortal mages,’ in an ancestral journal talking about the Deathly Hallows. Sirius dismissed it, though. The idea that Ed had discovered one of the mythical artifacts was laughable.

‘Honestly, it’s more likely that Harry’s Invisibility Cloak is one of the Deathly Hallows,’ Sirius snorted to himself. ‘I mean, it hasn’t faded since its time with James, and that was decades ago… and even the best Invisibility Cloaks only last two decades at most…’

Sirius quickly shook his head, trying to get that crazy notion out of his brain. Harry, having a Deathly Hallow? No way! Sure, he may have asked to borrow the cloak during his trip to Africa, and when he got it from Hedwig it was still as powerful as it’d been when he’d last seen it as a kid doing pranks with the Marauders… but it wasn’t a damned legendary artifact forged by Death itself! The very idea!

‘I wonder how Ed is doing?’ Sirius instead wondered to himself.

Hunch’s boy had proven himself to be genuine in his desires to help, and repentant regarding the secrets he’d had and used behind their backs. Though the animagus was still a bit worried about the current situation. He’d heard that Ed had gotten a letter on his birthday from the very guy who’d been pressuring him, and wasn’t sure what would happen.

It was why he’d offered to stick around a little bit longer in case he needed an extra wand while Remus was unavailable, but Ed had told Sirius that he’d be fine. And so, at seven-twenty in the morning on April 3rd, Sirius’ flight took off and began the long trek to the capital of Rwanda in Africa.

One eight-and-a-half-hour-long flight later, and Sirius was finally at his destination. Stifling a yawn as he left, he winced a little at the heat. It was hotter in Rwanda than England, and he wasn’t used to so much sun.

‘Wish I could have taken a Portkey,’ he grumbled as he felt a bit of jetlag hit while he waited for his luggage.

Sadly, for the sake of secrecy, he’d had to travel the Muggle way. The African Tribal Coalition was quite anal about magic users coming into their territory, and unless you had a damn good reason, the waitlist for an African Portkey could be weeks, if not months.

He could have Portkeyed into Magical Egypt, as their travel laws were much less severe, especially for tourists, which he was technically posing as, but trying to cross the border deeper into Africa would have drawn unwanted attention.

When he finally grabbed his luggage, he grabbed a taxi and went to the hotel he had booked a room in: the Hotel des Mille Collines. According to the data Ed had provided, the hotel would become a refugee center during the genocide, with over a thousand people taking shelter in it during the early days of chaos.

‘No wards,’ Sirius noted as he looked out the window at the building. ‘I’ll have to throw a few up. Take a bit of work to protect the whole place, but if it makes it safer, it’s something I just gotta do.’

He had a few runic Wardstones in his luggage which he could use to help with the barriers. Not very potent Wardstones, just cheap, temporary ones that would make it harder for people with negative intentions for the inhabitants to find it, but that was exactly what the hotel needed right now.

He grabbed his room key from the receptionist at the desk, and went up to the Presidential Suite. Admiring the décor for a moment, Sirius put his bags down and got to work double-checking everything.

Sirius reached into his backpack and took out the Mokeskin pouch that had been hidden inside. Within the magically expanded bag were a couple of runic guns, a pair of sunglasses enchanted to blur his features and make them forgettable, and one of the new prototype body armors.

He admired the black vest, nodding in approval at it. In the past year, new experiments had been done to improve them, resulting in the Avalon Mark 2 Body Armor.

They had been enhanced with a two-fold defensive array incorporated into the body armor. The Protego was now a constant, full body shield, rather than forming a tiny shield every time to block the shots. This allowed it to take multiple attacks from different directions at the same time and it now covered the legs.

The improved shield charm also included inertial dampeners to reduce ricochet chances, and had the flickers of light removed to avoid blinding the wearer. A Bubblehead Charm was also incorporated into the armor, ensuring tear gas and other chemical weapons wouldn’t affect the wearer.

In order to accommodate all of this, a Compression Charm was used on the runic sequences to shrink them down into a manageable state, and the armor itself was given an Unbreakable charm to reduce the amount of damage it would take if the Protego was bypassed. The Unbreakable charm could protect from a few shots on its own, though enough force could go through it entirely.

All of the runes and enchantments could be powered by the magic in the air, ensuring even a Muggle could wear it and not be hurt too badly, with the Protego lasting for upwards of a dozen shots from small arms fire before needing to recharge, and provided half an hour’s worth of fresh air from the Bubblehead Charm. But if a Squib or Wizard wore one, then it would be even more effective. A Squib could double or triple the effectiveness, while a wizard like himself might see a five to even tenfold improvement.

The Mark 2 Avalon Body Armor was highly effective, though it still needed work to make it cost effective. Right now, a single Mark 2 cost upwards of five thousand galleons to produce based on material and labor costs. That was too expensive, and it couldn’t be made entirely with runes, which had been the whole point of the project in the first place: to make weapons and armor that didn’t have to rely on actively cast enchantments. Aside from those issues, though, it was still an impressive piece of work.

‘Wish we had some of these back during the war,’ Sirius thought to himself with a faint melancholic sigh escaping him as he put it down onto the hotel’s bed.

Guns and body armor weren’t all he’d brought along, either. Some Ofuda Talismans, medical potions and cremes, and a couple of emergency Portkeys had been packed as well.

‘Hopefully I won’t need all of this,’ Sirius thought to himself as he checked his personal sidearm.

The Merlin was just an ordinary 10 mm handgun, but it had runes for Piercing hexes inscribed onto it. The rounds could punch through tank armor at close enough range, and it was a truly lethal weapon. It also had an Unbreakable charm applied to it.

The next gun he inspected was the Excalibur Mark 1, a prototype rune-enhanced rifle. It has a Piercing hex array, but it had a scope attachment that had the Homenim Revelio charm applied to it, so he could see people even through solid objects like a wall.

There was also a silencer attachment that had Silencing runes on it to completely mask the sound of a bullet, and another couple of runes that could turn ordinary shots into explosive rounds. Last but not least, an Unbreakable charm was slapped onto it.

The whole thing was enchanted with runes, making it a deadly weapon in the hands of a trained soldier. Sirius wasn’t one, but he didn’t really need to be. With the guns and the body armor, he would be almost untouchable by mundane means.

‘Gonna be one hell of a live fire test run,’ he thought to himself with a snort before putting everything back into the Mokeskin bag, and putting it onto his belt, ready to be used at the drop of a hat.

With his wand holster strapped to his wrist, letting him cast spells without having to draw it – an innovation of Moony’s, in fact, born from his time having to live in the Muggle world due to his curse – and the various enchanted objects like the Bullet Time Ring Ed had given him, Sirius was confident in his chances of completing many of the objectives here.

‘First things first: gotta scout out the place. Get a grasp of the city and the locations I’m gonna need to be,’ Sirius thought as he left his room.

He got a couple tourist maps and brochures from the lobby, then proceeded to wander around Kigali. It was currently late afternoon, and he was able to look for places to eat as well.

As he acted like a typical tourist, Sirius kept an eye on the mood of the city and its people. There was definitely tension in some places, people trying to pretend everything was fine when it was clear things weren’t.

It reminded Sirius far too much of the Dark Lord’s reign of terror. The fear, the tension, the attempts to play dumb… he didn’t like it. Not one bit.

Getting hungry after walking around, and since the sun was starting to set, Sirius decided to try some local cuisine. He enjoyed it quite a bit, and made a note to have Kreacher try to replicate it.

The thought of forcing the bitter old elf to cook something that wasn’t British food made him smirk.

It was a good way to end the day in his opinion.

111 &&& 111

The next morning, Sirius read a newspaper while eating a continental breakfast in the hotel lobby. He was seeing what he could about the politics in Rwanda, and had already learned more than what Ed had been able to tell him.

‘The situation is a lot worse than I thought it was,’ Sirius thought with a barely hidden grimace. Trying solve the problems the little Seer had brought up weren’t going to be easy. ‘Might even have to call in some back up.’

For the moment, he didn’t think he would need to summon reinforcements from Crucible Security, but a niggling worry in the back of his head wouldn’t leave him, and he made a mental note to see who Ed could send over last minute.

For today, though, Sirius was going to be finishing his exploration of Kigali. The city was nowhere near as labyrinthine as London, but it was still quite sprawling and needed effort to cover it all.

‘I’ve got three days to get my preparations set up properly,’ Sirius mused, directing his thoughts to his plans for the next few days. ‘Lemme see… scout out the presidential palace, the other seats of government, Prime Minister’s home, UN camp, other important sites… got my work cut out for me. Probably going to have to do some of this on the fly, too, in order to avoid notice. Thankfully, I can slip about undetected.'

Thanks to recovering a bit from Azkaban, his animagus form no longer looked like a gaunt Grimm. Still was a big dog though, but it was too well-fed and groomed now to pass as a wild street mutt.

‘Still, it will give me a closer look at things without being noticed,’ Sirius thought to himself as he sipped at the excellent coffee. Seriously, if this was what the local Rwandan beans were like, he was definitely making sure the country got saved for the sake of good coffee!

Once he was done with breakfast, Sirius left the hotel wandered around Kigali a bit more, eventually coming to a place that he’d noted as being of interest last: a heavily warded district.

The local mages living in Kigali had turned a few streets into something not unlike Diagon Alley and the other mystical avenues in London. It was nice and colorful, with the smells of exotic spices in the air.

However, the magical government of Rwanda did hold meetings within the city. No, they had a secret spot elsewhere in the country, far away from the Muggle population. In fact, the magical society of Rwanda was descended from the Kingdom of Rwanda and retained many old customs that put them at odds with the rest of the modern nation, more so than even the divide between magicals and Muggles in the British Isles.

‘Which means that the magical society is predominately still run by Tutsi tribesfolk, while the Muggleborn are mostly Hutu,’ Sirius thought with a barely hidden grimace. That meant the civil war would become a lot more brutal and bloody with magic thrown into the mix.

‘Odds are there are going to be Tutsi Purebloods fighting against Hutu Muggleborn when the coup kicks off,’ Sirius guessed.

After a moment he entered the magical street, passing through the Muggle diverting wards. ‘I need to see what things are like in the magical side of things.’

Kigali’s magical sector was not very lively. It was, like the rest of the city, tense, as if they could sense the chaos about to break loose. Though it was more colorful than magical London, with bright and cheerful colors on display in every shop window. Red and green striped pavilions were set up next to stalls run by witches and wizards in yellow, red, and green robes.

Being a white wizard drew a lot of attention his way, and Sirius found that the merchants were suddenly very eager to make his acquaintance.

Sirius decided to play the tourist, glad he’d changed his hair and appearance before entering in order to prevent anybody connecting his currently blond appearance with Sirius Black, British Lord.

He did notice a few things while browsing. Some storefronts had blue and green stripped banners while others had pure blue banners, and the way the people moved around these stores showed that there was something important about those markers. He also saw that the striped banners belonged to the stalls and vendors who did not operate out of buildings and instead set up on the sides of the road.

“What’s the deal with the banners?” Sirius inquired as he stopped at a vendor selling enchanted pottery.

“That?” the stall’s owner inquired, following the European wizard’s gaze, which was currently fixed onto the man’s own blue and green banner.

“Ah, it is a small thing,” he said, trying to wave it off, but Sirius simply shook his head while putting a silver sickle down in front of him.

“It doesn’t seem that way,” the Animagus replied.

“Well, you see…” the man stammered, before glancing around discreetly and taking the coin. “The striped banner is for people like myself. Hutu. The pure blue means they are Tutsi.”

“There is bad blood between your two groups, right?” Sirius pressed.

“Some,” the seller admitted. Sirius, sensing his reluctance to continue, put another coin down.

“It has been… difficult in recent years for Hutu like myself to make a living in Rwanda. The Tutsi seem to think that just because our Muggle counterparts control the other side’s government, then they can order us around and make it harder to do anything.”

“The Tutsi used to dominate the monarchy, yeah? Must mean there are a lot of old Tutsi blood wards and magical defenses,” Sirius guessed.

“Yes, yes, the Tutsi use those to, um, keep the peace,” the vendor said, though Sirius could hear the disdain in his voice.

“Unfortunate,” Sirius sighed. “Are there many Hutu Muggleborn?”

“About half of all Muggleborn are Hutu,” he confirmed. “Though almost all Tutsi are Trueborn. Ah, that would be ‘Purebloods’ in European, yes?”

“Sounds right,” the disguised wizard said with a nod. He then picked out an enchanted clay pot that would magically purify any water put into it, making it safe to drink. “I’ll take this one, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course, of course, good sir!” the merchant said, his smile becoming genuine as Sirius paid in gold for it.

‘I bet Ed would be interested in these enchantments,’ Sirius mused to himself as he walked off, his purchase tucked into another expanded bag that didn’t have any of his weapons or gear.

He also found a shop – Tutsi aligned – selling magic carpets and he decided to indulge and buy one. He needed a way to get around that could carry multiple people if he ended up having to evacuate the Prime Minister, and a flying carpet would suit that role perfectly.

When he was done shopping around noon, Sirius had explored the magical parts of Kigali and come to learn some important facts. One, the Tutsi Purebloods owned or controlled the best stores. They owned more buildings as well. Two, the magicals were indeed divided into Muggleborn and Pureblood. Three, said Hutu magicals were oppressed by the Tutsi, prevented from holding office in the magical government.

It was a worrying inverse of the situation on the Muggle side of the country. The Tutsi were a subjugated minority while the Hutu ran the government. It looked like the Tutsi mages were getting back at the Hutu mages for this.

‘When the coup erupts, the Hutu magicals are going to aid their Muggle counterparts and try to take down the Tutsi controlled magical government as well,’ Sirius thought. He was absolutely sure of this.

The Statute of Secrecy might not be able to hold up if open conflict between two different groups of mages end up fighting each other while also intervening in the fighting amongst the mundane factions.

There was a chance, albeit small, that the magical community of Rwanda would stay out of the uprising and subsequent genocide in an effort to preserve the Statute and ignore the racial tensions, but Sirius wasn’t going to hold his breath.

War was going to sweep the country, and magic was going to end up being used by both sides in the Muggle coup.

‘I need to prepare,’ he thought to himself as he found a place to eat some lunch. ‘When I’m done, I need to inspect the Prime Minister’s home and scout it out. See what I can do there.’

So much to do, so little time! At least the food was good.