Chapter 4:Rising Excitement
"Quite a crowd down there," Harry noted as he looked down from the floor-to-ceiling window of Sirius' study. Beside him, his godfather nodded.
"Good thing there was all that space available," Remus noted as he handed a bottle of Butterbeer to Harry and Sirius before taking a swig of his own. "I shudder to think what the Ministry would have tried to do without this place."
"Probably try to take over a farm somewhere and obliviate the owner whenever he tries to raise a fuss," Sirius growled darkly, earning a worried look from the other two.
"Padfoot…" Remus started and Sirius sighed.
"Sorry. Still irritated with them."
"He's been spending quite a bit of time with the Five." Remus supplied. "He's become rather protective of them. He's also been campaigning against the Ministry's order that all Obscurials are to be killed as soon as they are identified."
"That would do it." Harry agreed sourly but with a slight smirk. "Good thing that Project Pimpernel is now active."
"Project… Pimpernel?" Remus asked slowly and Sirius grinned with savage glee.
"You may have heard that in the Muggle world, Evans Enterprises and Stark Industries have teamed up to roll out a new generation of mobile communication devices with advanced features, right?" Harry asked and Remus slowly nodded. "Well, Hermione pointed out that how we were using Switching Optical Spheres was massively overkill, since the theoretical data rate we could support with it was actually several orders of magnitude higher than we could physically encode and transmit, even with K-tech, so we cut back the number of switches to a mere fifty thousand per second. It takes far less magical energy to run and still gives us over five times as much theoretical data flow as we can currently transmit."
"…and this relates to your project… how?" Remus asked curiously.
"Since we now have so much mage-energy to spare, we've put an Optical Sphere into each relay used for mobile phones." Harry shrugged. "It's quite literal black-box technology for the Muggles, but it does mean that when we put the link in, we can also put in a specialised sensor array. We put some of the data into the public domain, weather patterns for the forecasters mainly, and we also use the relays as triangulation points so that people can use their phones to find out where they are and plot routes to where they need to go, but the magic-field sensors? Jor-El has a special monitoring program for that. The DMLE gets some of the data in the form of a special map on their main control room, one that highlights the casting of any Unforgivable or notifies them of Accidental Magic as well as the positions of the remaining three Dementors, but what it does not show them is Obscurials."
Remus stared at Harry, then grinned. "So, you can detect and rescue them before the DMLE is even aware that they exist?"
Harry nodded. "That's right. I have contacts in MACUSA lobbying for the same mage-tech to be adopted there since most of the infrastructure's already in place. That way, we'll be able to find the Obscurials before the MACUSA Aurors even know that they're there."
"…nice." Remus nodded.
"Sadly, they got to the most recent one before we had the sensors in place to detect them." Harry added. "The sensors across California went on-line just in time to catch them killing him or her."
Remus winced, then frowned again.
"That company you mentioned, do they know…"
"About magic? No." Harry shook his head. "Someone managed to come up with a theortically-plausible thing about quantum mirroring or something to explain the FTL data-transmission speed between continents. I'd need to use the Raozrhyng Kypzhrig Azhuhm to have a chance of understanding it, but apparently it is possible, just very hard to do."
"The Row-zing-kip-whatsit?" Sirius asked, suddenly distracted from the crowds below and Remus nodded in agreement with the query.
"Sirs, your guests are approaching." Jor-El's voice announced before Harry could reply and Sirius peered down at the walkway leading to his penthouse mansion.
"Yes, and there they are! Everyone neat and tidy? Let's go greet them."
"I'll fetch our other guests while you do." Remus volunteered.
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"That's a huge apartment."
Dominic Pritchard nodded in agreement to his wife's comment as they looked at the expanse of semi-reflective glass spreading out to either side (as well as above and below) of the porch-like point that the walkway terminated at. As they drew near, the doors slid apart to reveal a grinning Lord Black and a smiling Lord Potter.
"Hey, Dom!" Sirius called in greeting as he bounded forwards to shake his hand. "Good to see you again and… Estelle! It has been quite a while."
At Dominic's quizzical look, Sirius expanded on how he recognised Estelle. "I tried to woo her at Hogwarts. She turned me down, then when I tried again, she fired several spells at me. For the following week, I had green and silver sparkles all around me."
Estelle smiled almost wistfully as she nodded in agreement.
"And this is my godson, Lord Harry Potter." Sirius concluded and Dominic offered his hand to the teen in question.
"An honour to meet you, my Lord."
"Harry, Dom here was one of the Aurors who participated in the battle, using a sword. He's a good man."
"And, professionally speaking, just how did you do whatever it was at Little Hangleton?" Dominic asked curiously. "It's starting to fade, but the Unspeakables are still freaking out over it."
"Family magic." Harry shrugged and Dominic nodded slowly.
"I see. I am still curious, but thank you."
"Well, come on in." Sirius waved for the trio to enter his mansion. "We've got a special connection point to the Potter-Black Box and there are several people that I'd like you to meet."
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"Harry!" Neville grinned as he entered the room just ahead of his parents and grandmother. "Hey, Uncle Sirius, nice house."
"I quite like it." Sirius agreed with a smile. "You know everyone but these three. Dominic, Estelle, Graham, may I introduce you to Lord Frank Longbottom, his lovely wife Alice Longbottom, Heir Neville Longbottom and Dame Augusta Longbottom. Frank, Alice, Neville, Augusta, may I introduce you to Auror Dominic Pritchard, his wife Estelle Pritchard and their son, Graham Pritchard, soon to be enrolled at Hogwarts."
The two men shook hands as the introductions were concluded and Sirius clapped.
"Okay, the match will be starting soon, so let's get settled in to our box. This way, everyone, the others are waiting!"
Sirius led them to the back of the entrance hall to a door set into a small alcove.
"Okay, Pritchards with me, Harry, you bring the Longbottoms."
Sirius led his guests into the small room and the door swung shut, re-opening a few seconds later to reveal that the room was empty.
"Let's go." Harry grinned as he half-bowed for Frank and Alice to lead the way.
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Barty Crouch (Jr) carefully levitated the final squeaking mouse into position above Nagini's head and the large snake responded by blurring into another lunge that cut the mouse's final squeak off before it could be finished.
"I hate it when you do that." A voice whined behind him and Barty half-turned to see Pettigrew standing in the doorway, a bulging plastic bag in his hands.
"Did you get it?" Barty asked as he straightened up and returned the aquarium lid (with the heating runes) to its place, Nagini flowing to her favorite rock for a nap as she began digesting her meal.
"I don't know how you can stand that stuff." Peter shuddered as he pulled out a bottle of Doctor Pepper and set it on the table that had been placed at the side of the room. "It tastes like fizzy Vimto."
"Yet you drink that orange sludge."
"Hey, I happen to like Iron Bru!" Peter snapped back as he moved the bottle in question out of the bag and onto the table, then placed several tubes of crisps next to it.
"Did you use those vouchers I gave you?" Barty asked and Peter nodded.
"Yeah… but seriously? You actually applied for a Nectar Card?"
"And what's wrong with that?" Barty asked as he pulled out the rack of figures that represented the Irish Quidditch Team and slotted them onto the Quidditch Table. "Remember, Peter, at this time only you and I know that I did not die in Azkaban. While that means that they will not be searching for me, it does mean that I must use services other than Gringotts and by using that which I learned during our trip to America, we can purchase our food and other supplies from the Muggles, enough to feast every day without arousing suspicion."
Peter sighed as he finished arranging the snacks on the table while a click behind him announced that the Bulgarian Team models were in position.
"Why don't we have one of those new screen-things that Evan Enterprises is selling?"
"I do not trust them." Barty admitted. "I do not know how they work, nor do I know that they cannot be used to spy on us. Same as for the phones. We cannot risk exposing ourselves, Inquisitor. We are the hidden blades that our Lord will wield against our enemies when he returns once more and to aid him, I will need you to relay a message to one of our allies… after the game concludes."
Peter slouched to side of the Quidditch Table, glass of fizzing orange liquid in hand.
"So… can we turn on the radio?"
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Ladies and Gentlewizards, Honorable Goblins and Beings of all
types, this is the Wireless Wizarding Network transmitting from
the James Potter Memorial Stadium where the final match of
the Quidditch World Cup will soon be taking place!
As well as supporting the Quidditch Tables, we are proud to also
be covering the first ever Quidditch Match to also be shown on
Magevision thanks to the efforts of the Kitsune Broadcasting
Company and the Wizarding section of the British Broadcasting
Company. By means of special cameras around the pitch,live
images of the match will be seen all around the world! But
don't worry, the Quidditch Tables will not be phased out any
time soon...
.
"Minister Fudge." The Bulgarian Minister of Magic nodded in greeting as Fudge rose from his chair to welcome him. "This is very nice Quidditch Pitch."
"Indeed it is, Minister Oblansk." Fudge agreed as he held out his hand, allowing the heavyset man to give it a firm shake. "Please, take a seat and I would be honored if you would call me Cornelious. After all, we are both Ministers."
"As you vish, Cornelius." Oblansk rumbled. "Und you can call me Stefan. Zis is amazink place."
"It is indeed." Cornelius nodded as his staff resumed their seats in the lower section of the box, his aide sat nearby with a folder of useful information on her lap, ready to provide him with whatever facts he needed. "The James Potter Memorial Stadium and indeed, the entire Tegg's Nose Cavern was the result of a project run by Evans Enterprises."
"Haf to ask zem for similar in Bulgaria." Stefan noted, looking around through the large windows which made up three sides of the Box, then down through the transparent flooring below the dias on which he was seated. "Zis is very gut."
"It is indeed." Cornelius agreed again, waving one hand at the still-blank screens which were set above and flanking the open front of the box. "When those are switched on, they will let us watch from several different angles at once and… aha!"
The two screens on either side and the one set in the middle all lit up, an image of a handsome wizard and beautiful witch on them
"…and we bid a warm welcome to those who have chosen to watch this World Cup Quidditch Match!" The witch chirped happily as the Wizard smiled. "Minister Cornelius Fudge of the United Kingdom of Wizarding Britain had this statement for us."
The image changed to show Cornelius Fudge standing on the stage set below the Ministerial Box, the Quidditch Trophy on a pedestal beside him.
"On behalf of Wizarding Britain, I am honoured to welcome our visitors and extend our hospitality to you all." The recorded Fudge said with a wide smile. "I am certain that this will be a truly memorable event for all of us and I am happy that Britain has been the nation chosen to host this most magnificent match that we are all looking forward to."
The image froze for an instant, and then the wizard and witch reappeared with the Wizard speaking.
"That was our Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, talking earlier today. Now, let us go to our sports studio at the JPM Stadium..."