12 Chapter:12 Trip(END): End Of The Trip

Victoire listened to Hector's tales carefully. 

Though the story was a plausible excuse, there were still several factors to be accounted for. The first one of them was the reason Hector has given for the trip,

"But Dad, you said this trip was to make up for the birthday party."

She pouted her lips, in an attempt to show her dissatisfaction with him lying to her. 

Hector chuckled nervously,

"Ah, Um. Yes, the birthday party.

I remember, so what about tomorrow, eh? Let's keep your birthday party tomorrow alright? We can even invite Madeye to the party. He is an old friend and mentor. Hmm?"

He forgot all about her birthday! 

Fuck that! He forgot all about the reason he gave her for the trip!

Quite angry now, Victoire thought of ways to take revenge.

Maybe she will spike his drink with dragon laxatives, not much, just a drop or two.

Or maybe she would charm his nicker to glow in the dark.

Or maybe she would...

'What the fuck was that?'

She snapped out of her thoughts.

Since when did she care for petty pranks or 'birthday parties'?

Only now did she notice that for quite a while now she had been acting like a fool.

Giggling at the auror's jokes. Giggling! At that busty Auror's hag jokes!

Bothering Hector with his work for a birthday party. Something she didn't even care for.

Her mental rant came to a standstill.

Perhaps there WAS something that had suddenly changed her behavior.

Perhaps... she had changed. 

Regressed more like it.

Being a child had affected her more than she gave it credit for. 

She had grown careless, selfish, ignorant, and perhaps a teeny bit arrogant. 

Pausing her contemplation, she thought of what Hector had been speaking of.

A raid at the Ministry of Magic. Admittedly, the country that was affected didn't send a lot of warning bells ringing.

Italy is a country suffering heavily from non-human magical creatures violence.

There was always an article in the 'International Times' regarding a Werewolf pack or Vampire coven being exterminated by wizards for having attacked muggles. Heck, there was an arrest a couple of weeks ago, the article of which stated that the witch in question was attempting to create 'Frankenstein' from some muggle novel.

She was captured trying to confound a muggle officer into giving her his arm.

Afterward, she was tried and then sentenced to five months in 'Umbraforte', the Italian Wizarding prison. 

All in all, there wasn't much at the Italian Ministry of Magic. Except maybe a shitload of silver, or some type of new magical weapon prototypes. 

But she highly doubted that any of these could be the reason for the attack.

Moldybat was, she says this with quite a bit of hesitation, an expert at Dark Arts. Any weapon that a Ministry worker could create, he could probably copy. 

As for Grindelwald, well he may be looking for a new hookah to smoke. But then he was at Nurmengard where he had been under house arrest. Again an unlikely conclusion.

A bit hesitant, she asked in a hushed tone,

"What exactly is the 'Brotherhood of the Obsidian Veil', Papa? And why did YOU travel all the way here to search for information regarding their movement in Paris?"

Hector was lost in thoughts but he still heard her question. 

The shot he drank must be quite strong, or his alcohol tolerance was weak, for he started to talk about them almost instantaneously, not remembering that the one who asked these questions was his eleven-year-old daughter.

"They are a group of crazy nutters. Subordinates of he-who-must-not-be-named who fled the ministry's chase to Russia, South America, or Korea. There were a lot of 'em,

Half-bloods of pureblood families, fourth or fifth generations of muggle wizards who married fellow wizards and kept on doing so, some muggle wizards with exceptional talent or connections."

He waved his hand and from under one of the bunks, a small cabinet emerged. With another wave of his fingers, a bottle and a glass flew out of the cabinet, and began to pour a drink.

A sip later he continued his narration,

"All sorts of folks he had pulled over. They fled for a couple of years before the Ministries had to pull off the hunt due to budget issues. And once we pulled back, they regrouped under the banner of this brotherhood. 

But most of them were dirt poor or barely making ends meet under HIS rule and once HE was gone, they quickly became bandits. Resorting to violence and threats to go by. 

The Ministry had no choice but to restart the hunt. British Ministry, of course, gave an excuse regarding heavy resource exhaustion and pulled out early on, leaving most of the work to the rest of the European Ministries."

He sighed and finished his liquor,

"But politicians will always be politicians.

The hunt was called off in under a month of its start, and we were doing so well too. I tried to protest but they shut me up with the reservoir case."

A twirl of his finger later, a second glass was poured,

"Since robbing and killing didn't work, they resorted to cleverer means. Attempting to recruit former Acolytes or their descendants. Some readily agreed while others were forced to agree or left alone due to their contribution. 

Our family sheltered dozens of them for a while, once the heat passed they went back to their secluded life. Those were... dangerous times.

Aurors, Hit Wizards, and some distinguished Orders fought one last battle against the Brotherhood. We were given orders not to hold back so we wiped them out using lethal spells, we thought that was the last of them, and rightfully so too since they vanished off the face of the earth. 

But recently they started to wreak havoc again, raiding, stealing, killing, assassinating. Just like the old times."

He finished the third glass of his wine and silently stared at the burning fireplace.

Suddenly, feeling quite bold and maybe even opportunistic, she began questioning him,

"What did they steal?"

He merely turned his head to look at her and shook with laughter,

"Just cause I'm drunk, don't think you can make me spill Ministry secrets kid."

His laugh grew louder and louder as the grin on Victoire's face slipped.

"Seriously, that's not something you need to be concerned about. It's Ministry business and the Ministry will handle it.

Why don't we talk about which school are you going to join this year."

He choked at the end of his sentence.

"What?"

Victoire's head turned sideways like that of an owl and she stared at him incredulously.

He slapped his chest for a moment and then a burst of giggle left his lips. Courtesy of 'Giggling Water' a sort of beverage in the wizarding world.

He quickly gained back the control of his mouth and turned to look at Victoire,

"What's with the 'What'? 

You didn't think that just because of your complications at Beauxbatons we wouldn't send you to school, did you?" 

'Word from word.'

She thought. After all, she had lost control of her charm in the class, causing her classmates to do foolish acts to garner her attention. She had been sent back home shortly after that incident... and a couple for. 

Hector saw through her thoughts and smirked,

"Dream on, there's no way you will stay at home for the rest of the year.

It will be July 1st in a couple of weeks and admission letters are gonna come hurtling down on you. Pretty sure Durmstrang already sent one on your birthday, Koldovstoretz's came yesterday when you were sleeping so I stuffed it into your trunk, check it tomorrow morning." 

And with that, he bounded off to the bunk and promptly stuffed himself on top of the cramped bed. 

"Stupid bed... should've changed the room to a double bed one... oh, well, let's just settle in for the night."

He muttered his opinion of the bunks which was quite true. His frame was too big for the bunks that were designed for students, female students from the designs and marks on it, and he was a robust, vigorous man in his early fifties.

Victoire saw no point in arguing whether she would be attending school or not.

Sighing, she slid onto the other bunk and found a strange exhaustion take hold of her, her eyelids closed in on her.

Suddenly, she remembered something. She had paid for dinner but hadn't had one.

Such a waste.

As she was about to drift off into the arms of mistress slumber, a sudden voice once again halted her progress.

Hector's voice came from the other side of the room,

"I was thinking of cutting this trip short. Let's say tomorrow morning. 

How about you?"

Victoire couldn't think for much longer, she felt slumber's warm embrace closing in on her and barely managed to croak out a response

"Fine by me"

And she finally drifted off into the realm unknown. 

In the morning, the inn appeared to be much more rowdy and occupied than on the night before. 

Thaddeus, the barman, knocked on their door in the early hours of dawn to wake Hector and Victoire for an early breakfast. 

As usual, neither Victoire nor Hector were morning friendly, they dallied till Thaddeus was forced to send Madeye, their neighbor apparently, to wake them up. His tactics were rude and straightforward.

He marched to the door, checking for traps, found none, opened the gate with an 'Alohamora', crept inside, double-checked for traps, again found none, pointed his wand at Hector, 

"Pungentia!"

And sent a stinging jinx at him.

At once Hector jumped out of bed and reached for his wand but Madeye ignored him and sent a second jinx at Victoire,

"Pungentia!"

A streak of grey light flashed through the air and crashed on the 'protego' charm evoked by the protective bracelet she was wearing. 

Madeye raised an eyebrow at the barrier and sent a second, somewhat strange, stinging jinx at her,

"Doloribus Pungentia!"

This time, the spell bypassed the shield and hit Victoire square on the forehead.

"Ouch"

She jumped up at the painful sensation on her forehead and saw Madeye staring at her, Hector standing behind him, his eyes droopy and his head wobbling dangerously downward. 

In this scenario, there were two things she could do. Either she could wake up and join Hector as he gets lectured by Madeye, or she could simply go back to sleep and leave things at fate's mercy. 

She contemplated long and hard, for 3 seconds, felt the seductive pull of sleep, and went with the second option of promptly slipping back to sleep. 

Madeye swore under his breath and then bellowed at the top of his lungs, 

"DEAD! BOTH OF YOU ARE DEAD! DIED IN YOUR SLEEP! THAT'S WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN IF I WAS A DARK WIZARD! CONSTANCE VIGILANCE IS THE ONLY WAY TO SURVIVE."

His bellowing seems to have little effect on the duo. Swearing violently, he stormed out of the room.

Hector finally snapped out of his stupor and shook Victoire awake,

"Wake up kid, we gotta go back today."

And with that, he started waving his wand all over the place,

The linen on the beds straightened and a 'Scourgify' charm cleaned the beddings and the bunk was as good as new.

He cast a spell on himself that straightened his messy casuals, he frowned and tapped the wand on his clothes again. This time, the clothes changed from jeans and a polo shirt to a formal three-piece suit with a velvet blue overall. 

By now Victoire too had woken up and was currently washing in a sink. The sink appeared in place of the fireplace once tapped by a wand. 

 Hector waved again and all their luggage, a bag full of stuff they brought the previous day, flew out from under one of the bunks and tied itself properly. 

Within minutes they were down at the bar, waiting for Thaddeus' 'world-class breakfast'. Madeye was still grumpy but he started to talk to Hector about Auror's business.

Victoire scanned the room for any signs of Elara, but the witch seemed to have slept in for the day. As she was scanning the bar, she overheard Madeye's conversation with Hector,

"Eh, so ya' got any thin' from that hag?"

Asked Moody in a low whispery voice,

"Nothing. We don't know where they are, how many they are, who they are, what they want. Nothing at all, we are sitting duck if they decided on a second war."

Hector replied in a grim tone. The brotherhood seemed to be quite a pain for both of them,

"Thought so."

Madeye nodded. Suddenly, his eyes swirled around in his eye socket, he waited for a moment before saying,

"I got something, a lead that brought me here. Something about a magical creature trade-off, I wanted to raid their meeting place but the New England Ministry interfered with our work. They say we can't go around arresting innocent people."

He added the last sentence with a grimace, a similar one was on Hector's face too,

"You think..."

Hector began asking but was interrupted mid-way,

"No. The ministry hasn't fallen yet, or we won't be seeing each other here, alive."

Hector agreed with Madeye's words,

"But something is going on here,"

Madeye added, a gleam in his eyes,

"Possibly something big."

Interested, Hector leaned forward, his face betraying the barest hint of curiosity,

"I checked with the floo management department, there had been several thefts in their shipments. Fresh off the coast, the boat never managed to reach its intended destination. Not once or twice but a whole dozen times."

Hector's face was grim,

"And that's not all, the wand permit department has been recently broken into. Nothing was stolen but there were a couple of missing files regarding the wand permits issued in the early 1920s."

This time, even Madeye himself was quite skeptical of the news. His fingers tapped rapidly on the table, with no rhythm or signs of communication.

Hector spoke after quite a while,

"Something similar happened in Paris. The thief broke into the wand permit archives and the pure-blood family archives. There was a scuffle."

He paused for a moment,

"Three Unspeakable were suspected but they all turned up dead in their home. Their family never heard any sound, nor were there any signs of magic being performed. Poisoning was suspected but they found nothing in their body."

This time, it was Madeye's turn to show a hint of curiosity,

"The bodies were unharmed but there were no brains in them. It was as if their brain aged, withered away."

Hector paused for a moment, he picked up the glass placed on the table but before he could drink, Madeye taped the glass with his wand. A ripple spread through the water but there was no sign of tempering. He still checked two more times before allowing Hector to drink its contents.

"Some suspected temporal spells, other though it was work related but the other unspeakable assured us that the trio was not involved in any magic related to time. We tried to inquire further but the Minister was involved and we had to draw back for the moment. I got a tip-off not long after and planned this visit."

Madeye leaned back into his chair and sighed. Hector still kept his eyes fixed on the door.

They waited for a moment more and Thaddeus burst through the kitchen door, an array of platters and dishes floating behind him as did so. 

"Breakfast's ready, eat it or miss it!"

The platters floated around the pub and the witches and wizards picked what they wanted to eat from the floating platters.

Hector picked up three dishes, one for each, and placed them in front of Victoire and Moody. The platter in front of Victoire was an array of bacon, eggs, bread, and jams followed by a cup of coffee. She began digging in and so did Hector, but Madeye kept on reciting incantations over the food for several minutes before he took a bite out of his bacon.

After breakfast, Hector and Victoire followed after Moody as he checked out of the pub. 

Thaddeus stopped Victoire and handed her a parchment,

"This is from Elara, she wanted to give it to you personally but she had to go early so she entrusted it to me."

Victoire unfolded the piece of paper and saw that in neat and clear handwriting, there was an address scribbled onto the sheet,

[Elara Müller

Zauberweg 7 

80331 Zauberdorf

 Deutschland]

She raised a curious look at Thaddeus, 

"Her address so you could correspond through owls."

He said, in a matter-of-fact tone.

Yes, an address was needed for sending a letter through an owl, or at least if the addressed person uses anti-tracking jinx. Or else wouldn't it be possible to track just about anyone with an Owl? 

The trick Harry Potter pulled by sending Hedwig after Sirius Black was most probably assisted by Dumbledore's magic. Or maybe Sirius let Hedwig find him, who knows? 

After the meal, Madeye ushered the duo off to the nearest liaison office which was a five-minute walk down the lane that led to the inn.

Victoire attempted to remind Hector that their luggage was still in the Blue Retro Van,

"Dad, what about my bag?"

Madeye replied instead of Hector,

"Don't worry lass, Thaddeus already had that stuff marked and ready to be sent across the ocean through a portkey. I'm guessing it must have reached the French Ministry of Magic right about now."

No more words were exchanged for the next three hours during which, they had their wands scanned, Victoire's practice wand was run through several additional check-ups and Madeye was scrutinized by the security personnel until a senior officer who knew Madeye allowed them to pass. 

Next was their on-hand luggage, which was a small bag of books and candies for Victoire, a bag of defensive items for Hector, and almost nothing for Madeye since he was half a magical item by now. His prosthetic sent the scanning devices haywire and he was once again forced through the security. 

She was getting a hang of why Madeye was so easy to impersonate, almost no security check worked on him, even the basic security check-up one. He said he had a shard of a cursed dagger stuck in his back which was almost always detected and then he had to show them an official permit from St Mungo.

A whole hour passed by during which they used every possible detection item on Victoire, Hector, and Madeye. Ranging from the antidote of Polyjuice Potion to Anti-Transfiguration spells. 

Nothing worked so they had to pass them through.

Half an hour later, their turn to use the portkey arrived. It was a short, rusted key, half corroded from rust and constantly jittering as they waited for it to work. A feeling as though she had just been shot through a narrow metal pipe, and then churned in a blender followed by being stomped on like a carpet, engulfed her.

Moments later, they were standing in the familiar halls of the Department for International Portkey and Travel Regulation. The place was surprisingly empty at the time which Victoire thought to be a bad sign and attempted to stop but was ushered forward by Madeye,

"Now's the time, let's go quick. Dilly-Dally anymore and this place would be crawling with people in no time."

They speed-walked across the hall and into the elevator, through the archway, and into a grand hall made from what appeared to be ashes.

A staff member setting up his table looked up and saw the trio, he walked out from behind his booth and approached them,

"The floo network ain't gonna open for another ten minutes. Back off will ya'."

But before he could throw the trio out, Madeye and Hector simultaneously took out their Auror passports making it clear that they had the privilege to use the network at any time they wished to.

The man was silent for a moment but still took both their badges and placed them under a glass desk where a quill made an entry in a thick register and wrote a notice.

"Here ya' go."

The staff member handed the badges and passes to Madeye and Hector, completely ignoring Victoire in doing so.

"What abo..."

But her words were cut short as Madeye slammed his fist on her head.

 'Ouch!

I was thinking of saving you during the Triwizard Tournament, now it ain't happening.'

Too bad she couldn't voice her thoughts out loud.

They passed the man and walked right into a fireplace where green flames were burning brightly.

Again they experienced the uncomfortable feeling that someone was trying to churn the oil out of them. And with a blinding Flash of light, they were standing on a plinth, looking like a trio of goofy status that had been painted with ashes.

All around them, several people were appearing on top of different plinths and walking off of them, completely unfazed by the floo travel.

Finally! Back to Paris.