Chapter 13: Wizard with a Mutation : Chapter 13
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Leaky Cauldron, Magical Britain [1980]
–Scott Winters–
"All ready?" He asked John who was standing in his room, holding onto two giant suitcases. He only had one when he came to London but apparently, John is a bit of a spendthrift when it comes to vacation purchases.
"Geez man, you were only out for, like, a day at max. When did you even get the time to buy all of this crap?"
"...I, uh, had it all delivered?"
…Okay, the cab is downstairs. Let's go,"
He escorted John to the cab waiting for him downstairs and made sure that he was safe and sound before he slipped back into his room. He hadn't detected anyone tailing him or John yet so it was safe to assume that at least John would be safe on his way back home but just to satisfy his paranoid, he had tagged John with an advanced version of Revelio charm, telling him the state of John's health at all times with a limited range.
It had a range of about 20 miles in every direction, which could be boosted quite a bit if he had attached a wardstone to it but that much was enough for John to reach the airport.
He stayed alert in his room, ready to bolt at a moment's notice, right up until he felt John's charm fly out of his range, meaning John's flight had taken off.
"Great, now, next order of business," He muttered to himself as he cast a wide area cleansing and sterilising spell on his room, getting rid of anything that he might have left accidentally, hair, skin cells, or anything else, before getting out of the room and heading straight for the Leaky Cauldron.
First order of business, he needed information. Real time information about the current workings of the British Magical Society. He couldn't rely on second hand recounts that reached MACUSA because they couldn't afford to offend Dumbledore by setting up a proper Spy nexus in London.
Bars were the best place to gather local information and fortunately for him, the Leaky Cauldron was the bar in London to get more information about the ministry. If he wanted to learn about teenagers and their affairs in Hogwarts, he might have headed to the Three Broomsticks Inn for that sort of gossip.
Unfortunately, he was not a teenager anymore and he had more pressing matters to attend to, hence, Leaky Cauldron it was. Plus, it was on his way that he found the US consulate building, so he resolved to send the letter to the President on his way back to the Hotel.
He might have to change places soon because he couldn't afford to be predictable, not against a fully realised Archmage, especially one well versed in the Dark Arts.
Sure, Dumbledore knew of the Dark Arts but the man's well known dislike of those arts was practically an open secret but the new Archmage was rumoured to live & breathe the Dark Arts, so much so that his entire being had been warped due to his magic, making him extremely strong but turning him into something else, something more than human and yet, all the more animalistic.
He winced as he read the sparse reports that MACUSA had been able to gather before both sides of the conflict went underground after MACUSA secretly spread the information that MACUSA now had a much younger Archmage in their arsenal. This new Archmage, dubbed Voldemort, was much more cunning, and ruthless and seeped into Dark Magic than any other Archmage he had heard of, to the point of being incapable of casting normal magic with the same strength as his fabled Dark Magic.
He had no idea why they had gotten so bold as to sponsor an attack on the biggest shopping district of Magical Britain on the same day that he had arrived but he knew that it was the sign of something bigger, the sign of things beginning to heat up again.
Magical Britain had already shed so much blood, from both sides before it was temporarily put to stop by the arrival of news of a much stronger MACUSA but the conflict was beginning to thaw out again.
And that meant that Dumbledore and Voldemort would both be looking to hire people for their causes. Which meant an opportunity for infiltration.
"Fate indeed," He muttered as he paid the cabby and came face to face with the Leaky Cauldron. Due to his sensitivity to magic, he could sense the charm cast on the outside facade and had to raise an eyebrow because somehow Tom had gotten the Ministry to cast the undetectable plotting charm on his private property and probably gotten away with free regular maintenance as well, all in the guise of maintaining the entrance to Diagon ALley a secret.
Shaking his head at the brilliance of Tom's ancestors, he entered the Pub and was immediately assaulted by the smell of cheap beer, Butterbeer, and perfumes, both cheap and expensive.
Taking the free newspaper, he got one big mug of Butterbeer, unlimited refills of course, and sat in a corner, getting ready to spend at least a couple of hours sitting in that uncomfortable chair to hear something useful when his eyes landed on the headline topic of the Daily Prophet, a horrible propaganda piece of the Ministry and the rich, according to his knowledge.
'Wizengamot voting tomorrow - Important Population control Bill'
'The Wizengamot to vote on an important piece of legislation brought forward by the Malfoy Family Head to decide on the fates of the magically disadvantaged children of the muggle people. According to Ministry sources, the bill aims to create a central repository of all magical children born under the Ministry Net, with talks of expanding the Net further inland so more magical children can be rescued from muggle upbringing. The bill further aims to create special Pre-Hogwarts schools, supervised by the Ministry, to make sure that the children receive appropriate magical education so that they are ready to…..'
By - Rita Skeeter
He sneered internally as the horrible, clear to anyone propaganda was on the front page of the only newspaper that mattered in Magical Britain. It was no wonder that most of their population consisted of sheep and yes men, more involved in their own lives rather than what was happening around them.
The bill was also rather deplorable, something that MACUSA was doing, but on a much smaller scale. He had found out long ago that, excluding the Native settlements, the magical births in Britain were far, far larger than MACUSA, despite having a fraction of the resources.
That had led to some pretty ugly operations that led to wizards in orphanages being rescued by MACUSA authorities, also going so far as to give away free scholarships, no strings attached to magical children from financially disadvantaged families, particularly from the No-maj families, something that Dumbledore put up a token resistance to. The operation was publicly denied but he knew that it was still ongoing, judging by the new admissions that his college friend had to deal with in her new mixed-education school.
The Net around MAgical Britain was a well researched phenomenon. It was horribly inefficient and resource consuming but it also did its job, especially considering that Magical Britain had 1.5x the number of MACUSA despite being so tiny in land mass.
The ability to track wizards within the Magical Net was a costly affair, which is why it was only used during wartime. This bill would increase that expenditure, to snatch children away from families and then send them to concentration camps.
Yes, he knew that they would call them schools but they would all be concentration camps, designed to churn out cheap and uneducated labour for the elites.
'Atleast MACUSA gave them the best possible education.'
At the end of the article, there was a line that caught his attention.
'This bill is an open bill, hence, there is a public gallery that can be used to see the proceedings. Open for all citizens of Magical Britain.'
He smiled as he tossed the newspaper on the table, enjoying his Butterbeer.
He had his in.
Now, all that was left to decide. Which side would benefit the most from a small internal culling, be it a bloody culling or an ideological culling?
He had a hunch that it would become pretty clear to him tomorrow morning. Paying the bill, he set out to go to a real cafe in the No-Maj world. They had much better coffee than Tom did and they would also have modern pen and paper.
After all, he still needed to write that letter to the President.
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