136 [India] - The Five Ministers

"Oz... Ambrosius was it? Now why does that sound familiar...".

Birsha put his hand to his chin for a moment as he scanned the boy called Oz in front of him one more time. When he heard Oz's name he felt as though it was a name he had heard before. As he thought on it more though, he couldn't come to a conclusion.

'Oh well... probably not important'.

Oz sat patiently looking at Birsha with an calm glint in his eyes. Stood just behind him was Alfreda who seemed to be watching the entire situation with slight bemusement.

"Well well young challenger let us play then! What will your bet be?".

Oz took out a couple of coins from his pocket. The amount was on the smaller side yet still enough to tempt Birsha's eyes. Chucking the coins into the pot next to Birsha, Birsha smiled widely and started to commence the game.

"Take a good look right now at which pot the snake is in! Okay... now lets begin!".

Birsha started to move the jars around at a fast pace once again and the crowd behind Oz all seemed to be keeping their eyes trained on his movements. Oz on the other hand didn't seem that interested in the movements, seemingly looking more intently at the jars themselves rather than the jar that had the snake in it.

After a minute or so of shuffling, Birsha came to a stop and presented the three jars to Oz.

"Now... which one do you think has the snake in it?".

Oz took a moment to think before calmly pointing towards the jar on the left. Birsha let off a slight sneer for a moment as he went to grab the jar for Oz. As Birsha made this movement, Oz's eyes seemed to glow slightly for a momentum Honed in on his actions. As Birsha's hand touched the top of the lidded jar Oz had picked, Oz saw a slight fluctuation of magic.

Flinging the jar lid open Birsha showed Oz the contents with a smile on his face.

"Thats too bad young boy too bad... Would you like to try again? double or nothing?".

Oz took a moment to think before speaking. The crowd were surprised when they heard Oz talk as his Hindi was perfect for a foreigner.

"I've got a better idea Birsha".

Birsha seemed stunted for a moment as he looked curiously at what Oz was about to do. He saw Oz reach into his pocket and pull out a little pouch of coins.

"Restart the round completely and Ill bet all of these coins".

Oz poured out the coin pouch in front of Birsha who looked on in shock at the amount being produced. His view of Oz changed from a young boy to a young golden spoon who was naive. His mind couldn't help but think of one word.

'Jackpot!'.

"A bold challenger indeed! Okay okay, Ill reset the jars and we can have another go!".

Birsha started to setup the jars once again for his little game and opened the lid on all three again. This time the snake was in the middle jar to start off with.

"Are you ready Oz?".

Oz nodded at Birsha's words ushering him to continue.

"Okay here it goes!".

Birsha started to rapidly move the jars around at a pace faster than normal. Despite the faster pace however it was still possible to keep up with the jars if you focused hard enough. To the crowd and Birsha's surprise however Oz seemed to just be staring blankly at Birsha's movements rather than focusing on the jar with the snake inside.

'What is this kid playing at...'.

Birsha let out a little sneer as he saw Oz's unfocused gaze watching his movements. He decided in the end to push this notion to the back of him mind as he just continued on in glee at the amount of money that would soon be in his pocket. After a little while longer of shuffling Birsha stopped and presented the three jars to Oz again.

"Now Oz... which jar has the snake in it?".

Oz took a deep look at the three jars for a while before his eyes rested on the jar to his right, Birsha's left. Oz's eyes seemed to glow again for a moment as he inspected that jar. The crowd stayed silent as they watched this foreigner make this important decision.

"I think its... this one!".

As Oz made his declaration he swiped the jar up that he had guessed and went ahead to open the lid of it. As Birsha saw this happen he immediately snapped his fingers as if to try and activate something however to his dismay when he did so he felt nothing happen.

'What!?'.

Birsha looked on in horror as Oz opened the jar and a little snake popped out of the top. The crowd who saw this all started to cheer as they saw Oz had won the bet.

"Well well looks like I made quite the lucky guess-".

Just as Oz was gloating in his victory Birsha snatched up everything off the floor and snatched the jar and snake away from Oz's hands. Just as the crowd went to look at what Birsha was doing they were all blinded by a bright light for a moment. As the light faded and their vision returned, Birsha was nowhere to be seen, his little setup fully packed up and Oz's coins stolen also.

"That damn scam artist!".

"He was just here to steal our money and run...".

"Ill call the police now and let them know!".

Many different voices rose in the crowd in collective anger at Birsha's actions. Some of the crowd looked towards the boy who was stood looking at where Birsha had disappeared from with a pitiful look in their eyes.

"That poor foreigner just lost all that money despite winning...".

Contrary to the angry face they though Oz would have though, his face showed a slight grin on it as he turned to the girl he had came with and spoke in English.

"Alfreda, did you catch which way he went?".

"Yes master~ he headed off westward towards an alley in that direction~".

As Alfreda's words were spoken both her and Oz ran off to where Birsha had scurried off to leaving a dishevelled crowd in their wake.

.

Birsha sat down on the floor in an alley between two houses. Organising his things he sneered thinking of the foreign boy who had nearly duped him.

"How the hell did he manage to do that!? The rune didn't activate!".

It took some time before Birsha's anger subsided and he let out a sigh. Even though he had lost the game he still made it out of there quick enough to evade everyone and made it away with the young boys money anyway. With a smile he reached into his pocket for a bottle and went to drink it. As he lifted the bottle to his mouth though, the bottle seemed to suddenly disappear from his grasp.

"Wha-!?".

Looking around, Birsha saw two figures stood opposite him in the alley. He recognised them as the boy and girl who had just played in his game.

"You two!? How did you find me!".

Without replying to Birsha, Oz who had arrived just in time lifted the bottle he had snatched off of Birsha to his nose and smelt it.

"This is... Polyjuice potion. A scam artist like you probably needs to keep changing identities in order to operate".

Birsha's anger grew as he took out his wand and casted a spell towards the young purple-eyed boy. The boy however seemed to sneer at the spell coming towards him, simply waving his hand and deflecting the spell away from himself. As he deflected the spell, he also snapped his fingers causing the wand in Birsha's hand to fly out of his grasp.

"How-!?"

In Birsha's confusion Oz rushed him with augmentum and punched him in the stomach causing him to keel over onto the ground.

"Ah, sorry. I was sparring with giants for so long I forgot that a physical fight against wizards isn't exactly something that would happen".

Oz lifted Birsha up and pushed him against the wall. Birsha looked on in shock at Oz now and with a hint of fear in his eyes as he still felt the pain of the punch Oz had landed on his stomach.

'How the hell did a boy this young punch so goddamn hard!?'.

Birsha stared over towards Alfreda who seemed to watch the events unfolding with a calm knowing expression. Seeing that expression in her eyes made him realise all the more the trouble he was in. Raising his hands up he started to speak with a fearful tone.

"O-Okay, you got me... do you just want your money back?!".

Oz smiled as he backed off a bit from Birsha allowing him some room.

"That and the money earned from winning your game... I have to say I heard about the snake charming wizards here who scam a lot in markets but I didn't expect to find one of you so quickly. It was quite the ingenious setup you had too...".

"Those jars you had, on the inside of them at the bottom you placed a rune in all three. You purposely moved the jars around at a pace that people would still be able to see where the snake had gone to. When the challenger to your little game picked that jar you would make it look like you were opening the lid for them to see inside when actually you were activating the rune inside that would kill the summoned snake within...".

Birsha looked at Oz in shock as he picked apart his scam game he had created. Even some witches and wizards who had participated in the past hadn't noticed the runes in the jars.

"Then you would ask the contestant double or nothing, to you that parts easy as the snake is already not in any of the jars. The contestant would usually oblige thinking that its 50/50 so may as well and then they end up picking. When they end up picking one of the two remaining jars you allow them to take the jar and open it themselves luring the crowds gaze away from yourself as you pickup the remaining jar and cast a spell inside it, summoning a snake into the remaining empty jar in your hand...".

"Honestly im impressed, its a neat little scam game".

A bead of sweat dropped from Birsha's brow as he looked at Oz again. Taking a deep look into Oz's purple eyes he recalled Oz's full name that he had spoken out when participating in the game initially.

"O-Oz... Ambrosius!? Wait y-you're the descendant of Merlin!?".

Oz's eyes jumped slightly as he grinned.

"I guess its not surprising that news has travelled to here as well. I didn't know I was so popular".

"O-Of course you are popular here! Merlin and the founders in Britain are known as some of the best wizards in history so a descendant of one of them appearing would be news to the whole world not just Britain!".

"Guess that makes sense".

Oz started to walk a bit closer to Birsha as he stared deeply into the scam artists eyes.

"I want to ask you a few questions Birsha and you need to answer me honestly. If you answer all my questions and help me out I'll let you run off free from harm. If you however decide to lie to me...".

Oz launched a punch towards Birsha's stomach before stopping a mere couple centimetres away. Birsha looked down at the fist that had nearly impacted in a cold sweat, remembering the punch he had felt earlier.

"I will just incapacitate you and wait for the ministry here to come and collect you then...".

Birsha's fearful expression grew as he noted that this young looking boy was anything but innocent. He could even feel a faint 'beast-like' bloodlust from his words.

"Okay starting off... Where is the ministries location here or rather your 'wizarding governments' location".

Birsha gulped as he went to answer Oz's question.

"T-The public entrance is down in Agrasen Ki Baoli. You can use the floo network to get in also however you need verification to do that and that verification is only given to workers of the ministry itself...".

Oz noted in his brain the location of the indian ministry as he began to speak again.

"Okay, next question for you Birsha. Have you heard anything at all about a Rakshasa or... devil of some kind roaming around this country?".

Birsha paled for a moment before answering again.

"Y-yes however its only supposed to be a rumour at this point. The ministry is downplaying it as much as possible to stop any public unrest".

"Public unrest hmmm... Seems your minister has a brain at least compared to ours".

"Okay and for my next question, Is there any news of... Other ministers and ministries arriving in India?".

Birsha nodded again at Oz's words.

"Recently I heard whispers that five different ministers along with people from their ministries had arrived in this country. They are said to have a meeting in the ministry here soon about 'diplomatic' relations... at least thats what the public have been told".

"Diplomatic relations...".

Oz's grin grew slightly as he thought about the real reason.

'Diplomatic relations my ass they have to be discussing about the Rakshasa present in this country somewhere...'.

"What countries have arrived here? do you know?".

"From what I've heard the countries ministers that have arrived are Belarus', China's, Japan's, South Korea's and Pakistan's... More were said to come however certain ministries in other countries have their own things to deal with at the moment so only 5 could make it...".

"That's certainly an interesting collection... Belarus travelled despite being the furthest away to help. Makes me wonder what their minister is like... What are the names of the ministers from each country Birsha".

Birsha looked at Oz with an incredulous expression.

"Y-you don't even know the other ministers names?".

"They never bother to teach us in the west".

"R-Right... well firstly the Belarusian Minister is called Fyodor. If I had to describe what he was like he kind of like a commander of an army. One of the biggest and strongest wizards I have ever seen..."

"Next there's the Chinese Minister Daiyu. She's a very intimidating woman whose talent in martial magic is one of the greatest in the world. Melding together magic and martial arts she could probably kill a bear in one kick".

"Pakistan's minister is called Reza and is the oldest minister appearing at this meeting in India. He's supposed to give off a kind aura however I've heard he can be a calculating man...".

"Next is South Korea's minister Kwan... he's an unprecedented minister, one of the youngest ministers in the world and one of the strongest. He's only in his mid twenties and is said to be a very cold man".

"Finally is Japan's minister Nozomi. She is also a younger minister only a couple years older than Kwan. She is the polar opposite of Kwan though apparently being very kind and caring to others. Rumour has it she's also an incredible medi-witch, one of the best in the world".

Hearing from Birsha all the different ministers names and little bits of information on what they were like, Oz's worldview seemed to expand even more in this wizarding world.

'They all actually sound capable to be in their position! Unlike our minister that damn fudge who managed through politics and connections alone these ministers seem to actually have talent along with them also! If Birsha is telling the truth then Fudge would be eaten alive in a room with these sorts of ministers placed within it!'.

"I-Is that all Oz?".

Oz glared at Birsha making him shrink back once again.

"Thank you for all this information Birsha... however there's one more thing I'd like to ask of you. Could you lead me and my partner here to Agrasen Ki Baoli and show us where the public entrance of the ministry is?".

Birsha's eyes widened as he started to shout.

"A-Are you crazy!? If I lead you there Ill end up getting caught!".

Oz chucked the Polyjuice potion in his hand back over to Birsha pointing at it when it was in his grasp.

"Drink that and you wont be spotted easy right? If you give me my money back now and lead me there Ill let you run off again. Better to be a broke free man than a broke man in a wizarding jail".

Birsha looked down at the Polyjuice potion in his grasp for a moment longer before sighing. In his mind he couldn't think of a single way to get out of this predicament, he had to listen to what Oz wanted.

"Fine... Ill lead you there, just give me a moment to prepare some things...".

Walking a bit deeper into the alley Oz called over to Birsha who was about to drink the potion.

"Try anything funny Birsha and Ill just beat you up and let the ministry come here instead. They can just lead me to the ministry in your place and you can just be locked up".

Birsha winced as he nodded at Oz's words. Drinking the Polyjuice potion he had in his hand. His face started to boil up as his facial features changed.

"That looks like such a painful process master... why don't wizards of this age just use transfiguration to change their facial features?".

Speaking in English to his right was Alfreda who question Oz about Birsha's Polyjuice potion transformation.

"I guess thats an easy statement coming from you considering how talented you are at transfiguration. Polyjuice potion is the easier alternative to getting a perfect disguise in public. Simply source the potion, add a hair and turn into the person you want to be. Transfiguration however up to your level requires such precise control to turn a person into something else. Most witches and wizards of this age don't have your level of control...".

Alfreda blushed slightly at Oz's praise of her abilities. Oz smiled looking at Birsha's transformation as he spoke again.

"The translator here seems to be working perfectly. We even found a wizard so quick and the location of the ministry even quicker. Compared to Minsk this trip seems to be going swimmingly".

"It did take us an entire month to get here though master~".

"Yeah... that was a painful journey to say the least. Constant flying across nations and setting up camp in different locations. Despite my trip to Romania allowing my dragon form to work more seamlessly, crossing so many countries is still a difficult task. I really should look into learning to apparate or at least another form of travel thats faster...".

"Then again, a part of the journey is the travelling along the way so despite wasting time travelling across countries it was still nice to take it slow. we're here now and thats what matters".

Alfreda smiled at her masters words as she questioned one more time.

"Have you heard anything recently from Harry and Rose master~?".

Oz's expression grew slightly cold as he recalled back a month ago to the first time he exchanged correspondence with Harry and Rose.

"They told me that they were attacked by a dementor on the train which is what I expected... the events seemed to be going the same with slight difference here and there...".

Oz recalled when he spoke to Harry specifically and remembered the glint in Harry's eyes as he spoke about the dementor attack. A smile crept onto his face for a moment as he thought about the new glint that shone in 'the boy who lived' eye's.

'Looks like I got something to look forward to after this trip is done at least...'.

After a couple more minutes of waiting Birsha emerged from the dark. His original appearance of a bland Indian man had changed into a more muscular man instead. His clothes had also been swapped out and the wand that was originally on the floor from Oz disarming him was now in his hands. Putting the wand back in his pocket he called over to Oz.

"I'm ready Oz".

Oz smiled and called back.

"Lead the way then".