Harry Potter Squib Tales Chapter 89: Wrapping up the Mission (Patreon)

Chapter 89: Wrapping Up The Mission

“Is she here yet?”

“Shush! She’ll hear you!”

“Did somebody remember to put out the macaroons?”

“Quiet! Here she comes!”

I held back a sigh as I stood in front of the door to Delilah’s apartment. Next to me, my girlfriend was smirking my way.

“A surprise party? Really?” she asked, very amused.

“It seemed like a good idea at the time?” I replied, defending myself poorly.

“Uh-huh,” she drawled. “How did you get my flat mates to go along with this?”

“They were surprisingly eager to do this,” I admitted. “The, uh, cookies Sam baked may have also helped.”

“Were they the red velvet cookies with homemade cream cheese icing?” she asked, and I nodded, earning a nod. “Hmm. Understandable. I’d have set up a surprise party for you, too, if I was bribed with those.”

I squinted at her suspiciously. “Do I need to be on the lookout next year on my birthday?”

“You’ll just have to wait to find out~!” she teased, before getting her keys out and unlocking the door to her apartment.

It was dark inside, but despite that, the light spilling into the room from the hallway revealed a bunch of figures huddling together in the dark near the couch and dining area.

“Oh, no, why is it so dark?” she wondered aloud, playing along, before reaching for the light switch.

Turning it on, a bunch of people sprang out of hiding, shouting, “SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” at her. Somebody even pulled a party cracker, shooting a bit of confetti at Delilah.

“Wow, I’m shocked, truly,” Delilah drawled, and one of her roommates pouted at her.

“Come on, couldn’t you pretend to be surprised?”

“Not in my contract, sorry,” Delilah replied with a chuckle, looking around at the people who’d gathered in her apartment.

Aside from her two roomies, there were Sam and Kate, Hildegarde, and a familiar silver-haired beauty that had Delilah grinning.

“Fleur!” she said happily. “You made it!”

“Oui,” the French Veela said with a smile of her own as the two women hugged. “It was just a quick hop across the channel with a Portkey.”

Chatting with each other, the gaggle of gal pals (and one boyfriend tagalong) made their way over to the table where a bunch of delicious baked confections were laid out.

“Oh, Sam!” Delilah breathed out in joy as she took a bite of a fudge brownie. “You always make the best desserts!”

“How do you not get fat eating this good food all the time, Sam?” Delilah’s other roommate wondered as she held back a moan in between bites of a vanilla cake.

“Exercise, mostly,” Sam replied with a chuckle. “It helps that I usually don’t have many leftovers to tempt me.”

‘Magic also probably plays a role,’ I thought as I nibbled daintily on a red velvet cookie.

Most mages could consume quite a bit more food than normal people, as evidenced by the Weasley family’s eating habits and the Hogwarts feasts, and I suspected that casting magic used up calories as well.

Sure, there were some overweight mages, but it general seemed like magical energy helped ensure healthy bodies no matter what happened to them.

Once we’d eaten our fill of junk food, we went over to the couch and began to binge trash TV shows while making fun of them – and also eating more snacks from time to time. British TMZ was hilarious, in a dumpster fire sort of way.

As the day turned to the evening, Sam and I whipped up a massive dinner full of deliciousness. It had all of Delilah’s favorites: cordon bleu, Scotch eggs, and of course, grilled asparagus.

“No idea how that can be one of your favorite foods,” I teased her as we ate.

“Just because your palate is unrefined, doesn’t mean mine also suffers,” Delilah scoffed playfully as she speared some of the asparagus and enjoyed it immensely.

“Yeah, Ed,” Kate teased. “Refine your palate!”

“Oui,” Fleur nodded in agreement. “Seeing as mon ami understands the joy of a French dish, it is only to be expected her tongue is superior to yours, non?”

“Hilarious,” I said as I rolled my eyes.

When that was done, we moved on to next part of the party: gifts!

Everyone got her something. Sam’s present was some new cooking stuff. Everyone needed a multi-purpose vegetable and potato peeler, according to her. Kate’s gift was homemade shampoo. Ever since she’d gotten her magic, she’d dived head first into the art of potion making and started to get very good at it. If she kept it up, I’d be offering Kate a job when she graduated!

Delilah’s room mates had gotten some new clothes for her. Hildegarde got Delilah a handmade golden bracelet with some runes that would keep her clean and comfortable no matter where she was. Fleur’s gift was a collection of fancy magical French perfume that could change scents depending on the surroundings, making sure they’d always smell just right and not mix poorly with background scents.

And then, last but not least, it was my turn.

“I hope you like it,” I said, passing her the present I’d picked out for her.

It was a red box, and when Delilah opened it, found it contained a necklace inside. Said piece of jewelry was made of a dozen pearls with a single teardrop shaped opal in the middle. The whole thing was beautiful, of course, but the real worth of the gift were the enchantments.

The pearls were multi-use Portkey, designed to take her to one of twelve different locations depending on the code words used (included in the birthday card I gave her). One went to the Ruby Manor, another to my penthouse suite, and two of these locations were safe houses that were known only to me (and now her).

As for the opal, it possessed the finest toxin and disease cure charms I could find. Short of something insanely potent or magical, like Basilisk venom or Dragon Pox, it’d protect Delilah from pretty much anything. Add in a Curse protection charm to the metal of the necklace itself, and my girlfriend was now the most protected woman in London, magical or mundane.

“Beautiful!” she breathed out, before hugging me tightly. “Thank you!”

“Anything for you,” I replied truthfully. She smiled and gave me a kiss, which earned some hooting and catcalls from her friends, before releasing my lips.

“Later,” she whispered, and I licked my lips unconsciously.

“Yes, ma’am!” I chuckled.

This had definitely been worth it!

111 &&& 111

I got a call I’d been expecting for a while a bit later in the week, while I was in the office. After making sure I was secure, I fetched the enchanted mirror, and soon was looking into the tired, haggard face of Sirius Black.

“Hey, Ed,” he said, and despite the weariness in his voice, he sounded as smug as ever.

“Sirius,” I replied. “You look like shit.”

“Been a while since I had a chance to do more than cast Scourgify on myself,” he grunted. “Wish I learned that shaving spell when James did. Apparently, Lily hated stubble…”

The animagus trailed off for a bit, lost in memories, before snapping back to the present. “Ugh, sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. How are things in Rwanda?” I asked him.

“Not bad. It’s been rough, but the NATO troops have been able to keep things in check on the mundane side of the fighting, while the ICW has sent observers to watch over the Tutsi wizarding forces. Things are still bad and I have to run counter-assassination operations every week or so to ensure no Hutu mages manage to curse Agathe and Kagame, but so far, it looks like the war is winding down. Should be finished by the end of the month.”

Right now, it was June 11th, and according to the timeline I knew, the Rwandan genocide and civil war would be over in July.

However, things had changed thanks to our intervention. With Sirius’ help in getting the non-genocidal members of the government out, they’d been able to coordinate much more closely with the RPF and establish control of the territories quicker with legitimate backing.

There were tensions between the RPF’s leadership and President Agathe, mostly due to the fact she was Hutu and the RPF were Tutsi, but Kagame was a pragmatic man, and he knew that working with the one person who truly believed in cooperation between the tribes was the only way to go forward.

Colonel Bagosora and the coup government had tried to decry the president as an imposter, then a traitor, but their efforts failed miserably, and they were declared terrorists by the U.N.

That was another change. With an actual legitimate leader in charge of Rwanda’s government-in-exile, the U.N. was a lot more willing to play ball and label Bagosora’s lackies as illegitimate usurpers.

From the news I’d overheard on the T.V. and radio, the RPF and NATO forces had gutted the coup forces, and had pushed even deeper into the country than the original timeline. Now, they had already retaken the capital of Kigali, and were circling the final holdouts of enemy resistance.

‘Not to mention, the dear ol’ colonel has been arrested and is going on trial for war crimes soon,’ I thought, pleased by the outcome of my intervention.

“Tell me more about the magical side of the conflict,” I asked. “Is it… contained?”

“The Tutsi mages have managed to crush most of the Hutu magical cells, though several are still on the loose,” Sirius informed me. “They still don’t like my presence and are trying to banish me, but I’m too slippery for them.”

“Has the ICW approached you?” I wondered.

“Oh, yeah. A bunch of stuffy bureaucrats at first trying to find out who I was and trying to get me deported, but then they started sending their Hit Wizards after me.”

“They really don’t like mercenaries,” I hummed.

“More like they object to me intervening on behalf of the regular people,” Sirius said, and his expression turned dark. “I’ve seen a lot of shit, kid. Stopped more rapes than I care to remember. More senseless murders, too. But I can’t be everywhere at once. And they just… leave the bodies to rot in the streets…”

The Animagus had a haunted look, and I winced before making a mental note to have him finally go see a damned therapist. He’d refused to go to one after his stint in Azkaban, but I was not going to let this fester any longer. I didn’t tell him that, though. He’d just protest.

‘I’ll get Hildegarde to help out on this,’ I thought.

Sirius and the dwarf were definitely dating at this point, though I think neither of them wanted to call it as such. But if she made the suggestion to him about getting help for his mental health, Sirius would treat it better than if I did.

Instead, I asked, “The ICW is really ignoring what happens to the mundane populace?”

“You know how it goes, Ed,” Sirius said tiredly. “The Statute of Secrecy is sacred to these people. That’s all that matters to them. Worse, I’ve encountered some ICW observers who are very clearly in the Anti-Muggle faction.”

At that, I could only sigh. It was sadly a given that plenty of magical governments would look down on Muggles as ‘lesser.’ Grindelwald wouldn’t have been so damn successful if that hadn’t been the case. But to hear that members of the ICW were actually dismissive of genocide? It disgusted me.

“Have you been able to get away from these Hit Wizards?” I asked, and Sirius scoffed.

“Please, who do you take me for?”

“A reckless man who learned how to become an Animagus so he could play with werewolves,” I drawled in response.

“Okay, got me there,” Sirius snorted, before shaking his head. “Nah, the ones they sent after me were clearly the bottom of the barrel. Add in the fact that Magical Europe has been at peace since the fall of Grindelwald, and the only Hit Wizards you have to worry about are the older ones who escaped the Communists. The younger ones are too green, and never actual fought. They’re more like Aurors.”

“Sounds like Magical Europe isn’t ready for a war,” I said, and earned a nod.

“I’d need to see the situation there for myself, but based on the goons I’ve shaken off my tail? They’re going to be ripped apart when Voldemort decides to go to war,” he said, and I nodded.

At this point, we all agreed that Voldemort would probably try to do some recruiting in Europe first, and maybe even set up a terror campaign or two, before coming back here.

“Are you going to be coming back soon, then?” I wondered, and Sirius nodded.

“Yes. I think I’ve done all I can, here. President Agathe is in power, Kigali is back in her hands, and the country is getting a lot of aid from the U.N.,” Sirius summarized. “I’ll give her a couple magical items to protect her, some anti-curse stuff and a shield or two, but after that, I’m returning home. I want to be there when the pup comes back from school.”

“Of course,” I said. “And, I hate to ask…”

“Yes, yes, I have the notes on how the equipment worked,” Sirius said, rolling his eyes at me.

“Hey, this is the best damn field test our magically enhanced military gear could ask for,” I told him in a mock-scolding tone. “You will shoot your guns and like it, young man!”

“Heh, sure thing, ‘pops,’” Sirius drawled. “I’ll say this, though: it all worked damn good. We will need to work out some kinks, though.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Biggest one was that too much magic on the guns caused them to start deforming,” he warned. “The runes to improve the way they shoot seemed enhance every aspect of them, including the heat generated when they fired. This caused the barrels to deform over time, and any jams or misfires would be a lot worse. Nothing a Reparo couldn’t fix, but it’s still an issue.”

“Odd, I haven’t noticed anything like that with any other rune sequences,” I muttered, confused. “Was it due to the amount of runes? Would a smaller number help?”

“I dunno, I just made the notes like you asked.”

I hummed to myself before nodding. “Suppose that’s all I can ask for,” I muttered. “When will you be back, then?”

“Fifteenth at the soonest, twentieth at the latest,” he informed me.

“I’ll have everything set up and made ready for your return,” I assured him, and he grinned at me.

“Can’t wait!” he said before hanging up.

I tucked the mirror away, thoughts racing. Why had the runes caused the guns to heat up and start to deform? Was this a danger my other runic projects could suffer? I’d need to do an examination of everything that used runes and check to ensure that this wouldn’t impact anything else, like the Tethys hydro-electric generators.

This needed more research and investigation!

111 &&& 111

“Well, the good news is that things aren’t as dire as I feared,” I told Delilah, Remus (who was connected via Magic Mirror), and the head of my Runic Applications and Inventions Department.

Since they were the members of my company most connected to the rune-based projects right now, I’d called them all together for an important meeting about what I’d discovered regarding the degradation Sirius had noticed.

“Sounds like it was still worse than you’d hoped,” Delilah pointed out.

“Very true. Apparently, when magic flows through runes, there is very little heat being produced. Even the ‘light’ that comes from the glow they let off isn’t real, so to speak, as it does not generate heat,” I explained. “However, when runes are being used to connect with or power something that is creating a type of energy, like flames or, in the case of the Tethys, electricity, they start to heat up.”

I leaned back in my chair with a frustrated frown. “It appears that magic has a sort of amplification effect on other forms of energy. Fire gets hotter and brighter, and electricity gets more… excited? It generates a lot more heat as a result regardless.”

“And electricity can already produce quite a bit of heat on its own, so this increased efficiency is what causes the damage to the runes and the surrounding materials,” Delilah finished. “Meaning we need to find better insulators if we want to build anything with runes going forward. If we want them to last after prolonged use, at least.”

“Explains why the guns were getting warped,” one of the heads of the rune lab mused. “Firing a bullet produces quite a bit of energy, and if this energy is being increased by the magic within the runes, I’m not surprised there’s damage.”

“Yes. I looked at the other runic inventions. So far, the potion stirrers are fine, with the only damage coming from prolonged contact with the potions themselves. And that is easily fixable. For things with delicate wires and other parts? Some already need replacements,” I informed them.

“We’re going to need to do a massive revamp of everything that uses runes right now,” the head of RAID, Rigel Nosbell, said with a shake of his head.

 Rigel Nosbell was an older man and a Squib whose knowledge of Runes was vastly superior to my own, but due to his status, was constantly being denied his rightful Mastery in the subject. Disgruntled, he’d been an easy fellow to convince to work with me, and he loved the idea of using Muggle technology to create runes faster and easier.

“And a list,” Remus added. “We use runes in a lot, from the wards to the safety equipment, and everything in between. If there’s a chance they could be damaged from prolonged use, we need to know now.”

“I’ll have somebody get right on that,” Rigel promised. “Thank God and Merlin we’ve been keeping track of everything we put runes onto in the first place so we don’t accidentally let them get seen by Muggles.”

Everyone nodded in relief at that. For once, stringent bureaucracy saved the day!