FicWad

Chapter 7 The Proxy Variant

Three days later found Harry pacing in the conference room. Papers were strewn across the long table. Growling to himself he didn’t notice his team filing in silently, until Jackson spoke up.

“Hey, boss? Are you okay?”

“Jackson, I didn’t see you there. Yes, I’m perfectly fine. I normally pace the conference room growling at innocent pieces of paper,” said Harry.

Will spoke up, “Harry, calm down. Tell us what’s going on.”

“Sorry guys, I’m just irritated at who the liaison is going to be. This is starting to look more and more like a setup,” replied Harry.

“Setup? What do you mean?” asked Aiden, jumping at the suspicious word.

“First off, the liaison is former friend of mine. Second, the situation sounds uncannily like one of the scenarios I used to run for the department in Britain. This stinks up to high heaven,” said Harry.

Nigel said, “Boss man, like we said we’re all behind you 100%, if you don’t want to do this we’ll bow out.”

The rest nodded, but Harry had a resigned look on his face, “That’s the thing, if we bow out, we’ll look weak.”

“We don’t care about our reputation, if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, we won’t go. Who the hell cares about what everyone else thinks,” said Sawyer.

“I have an idea, it’ll take all of us and our considerable acting skills. But if it’s a setup, we’ll need to figure this out before the contract can be signed,” said Madison.

All eyes turned to her, waiting expectantly.

“Since, the British Ministry is supposed to send in a representative. We’ll just toy with them. It seems as though they want Harry, what if Harry wasn’t part of the “crack force”?

Would they still want to work with us? I mean it’s no secret Harry is working here, but he hasn’t been making headlines and the department keeps everything under lock and key,” said Madison smugly.

Harry tapped his chin, “That might work, though this will require a lot of coordination. This representative is none other than, Ginny Weasley, my former friend. She’s very observant and perceptive, especially so when it involves something that affects her on a personal level.”

Christian asked, “It’s time those lazy British Aurors get off their arses and see what we Americans are made of. I mean we aren’t the best in the business by chance.”

The team roared its approval, pride evident in each person’s face as they had faith in their own and the team’s abilities to take on any job and do it well.

“Ahem, anyways before I was so rudely interrupted there is a way to go about doing this without Harry...-“ Madison started to say before she was interrupted yet again.

“But he’s the team leader! Especially, this case involving British incidents none of us has the familiarity with…-“ began Graham before a silencing spell shut him up.

“Thank you, Harry, will be the team leader for this case in particular, since he knows so much about the setting and the situation in general. The rest of us would have to learn the entirety of the case and its related history in less than two days. Even with the newest absorption techniques, that’s completely impossible.

Yesterday I was talking to Alexander from the Creations Department and they just finished field-testing this nifty little charm. The Proxy Variant, yeah, I know terrible name; but what’s really cool is that it takes a person’s life and replaces it with a completely different reality.

I think it was one of the spin-off projects from the Fidelius and the best thing they’ve improved is the whole part in needing a Secret-Keeper. Only the person whose life is being replaced can dispel the charm, no one else.

The only iffy portion they haven’t fixed is that if anyone tries to even hint about the secret there is an intense magical backlash and the “oath breaker” has his magic sealed and memory wiped…of everything, no magic, no life.”

The conference room was silent when Madison was done speaking; the implications of such a charm were drastic. The witness protection program, specific “sensitive” persons doing particular research and etc., this would start a new era for Magical Law Enforcement.

Sawyer broke the silence, “Maddy, that’s amazing! Harry can be our leader and not be revealed to the damned British at the same time. I should kiss you!”

Kelsey and Aiden reached over and smacked him upside the head, “don’t get our boss angry with you now or else you’ll get stuck with the crappy assignment…actually on the other hand, continue what you were saying?” smirked Aiden.

Christian asked, “Madison, when do we start? I’ve been looking at the dossier and she is due to arrive within a week’s time.”

Nodding, Madison flipped open her phone and shot off a text to Alex about the Proxy Variant charm, along with a separate one to the head of the department asking for authorization.

Ten minutes later a knock sounded on the door and a wiry green haired man walked through the door, “Hey guys, what’s up?”

“Alex! My man! Welcome!”

“Sup, dude?”

“Hey, guy haven’t seen you in a while!”

“Hi!”

“Welcome to the third floor and sunshine!”

“Greetings from the land of the living!”

Harry whistled for attention, “Alright, come on we’re on a deadline here. If you guys want me to be the team leader for this, we need to get things ready and settled fast.”

Alex bowed his head slightly; causing his green hair to weave itself into a different pattern from the long braid it originally was in, to a Mohawk sticking straight up.

“Sorry, H, I’ll get to the point. The Proxy Variant has just been field tested and worked amazingly well. We’ve tweaked all the little mishaps we’ve had and all we need is your boss’ approval then we can get started.

“I’m here, Senior Auror Captain Harry James Potter has the permission of Tiberius William Kaiden to undergo the Proxy Variant for as long as this case shall take,” said the gruff voice from the entrance of the conference room.

Alex was holding a sheaf of paper and after the specified permission from Kaiden, a beam of light stamped through the pile, which flew off to be filed correctly and swiftly.

He gestured for Harry to sit on the chair before him before removing a chain and two attachments from his case. Laying them out on the table before him, he started chanting in a strange language, while weaving strange formulas in the air. Suddenly, the magic in the room shifted sideways and there was something different in the air.

Alex put up his hand to forestall anyone’s movement until he finished the long incantation,

“Sorry about not warning you, the first part was part of the spell to ensure no one in this room meant any harm to H. The second part was to lock the secret within these items and had anyone done anything it could have set things off in a bad way.”

Harry just shook his head, “No worries Alex, we all trust you.”

The team nodded their heads as one, in special cases like this, there was no one they trusted than Alex and here he was once again helping them with another case.

“Okay, here’s the next part. Do you want a watch or a chain around your neck?” Alex asked.

Harry pondered for a moment; “I’ll take the chain as long as you make it summon-proof, water-proof, damage-proof and just about anything else proof since it seems as though it’s going to be important.”

“Yes, this the where the charm will be linked to your magical core and allows only you to dispel it. It’s given as much protection possible and of course you can choose it to be either invisible or just a random chain you wear. It’s spelled so none other than yourself can remove it, and not under any compulsion spells, including Unforgivables,” continued Alex.

Wyatt asked, “Exactly when will we be entered into the secret? I mean he’s basically going to be leaving us and coming back as another person, that kind of makes me a bit leery.”

Jackson stepped in, “Don’t worry Wyatt, it’ll be okay. I understand your hesitation but I was one of the field testers for this. It’s perfectly fine now and works like a charm.”

Everyone groaned at the bad pun before turning their attention back to Alex and his complex wand movements as he seemingly created Arithmancy equations and destroyed them all a single wand wave.

Alex smiled when everyone’s attention turned back towards him, “So I’ve just calibrated the requirements and if everyone would just place their index finger in this box to enter everyone’s data into the secret we’re almost done.”

One by one everyone trooped over to Alex and placed their index finger on top of a slight indent, which lit up and then faded away with a bright flash.

“Now, Harry it’s your turn. There’s no turning back now, have you chosen your name and life story?”

“Yes, or rather Madison with the help of the team has everything set and waiting.”

“Write your name and I’ll attach it to your life core imprinted into these objects. Once I’ve done that and you wear the chain, the process will begin. This takes three days and three nights before the conversion is complete and you can start a new life as whomever your team has chosen,” Alex said with a wry grin.

Nigel handed him a slip of paper with a name written on it, when Harry looked at it he laughed at the cleverness of his team and saw that not every part of him was being hidden.

Glancing down at the name again, he walked over to Alex and wrote out his name on the piece of paper shimmering with enchantments layered atop of enchantments.

There was a bright flash when Alex spoke the closing loops of the charm and the last few equations drawn into the paperwork. With a flash the paperwork vanished, to be filed in an undisclosed location as Harry James Potter disappeared.

“Congratulations, the charm was a success. Do you feel any different?”

“I…don’t, should I?”

“No, not at all. It’s one of those are you okay questions that everyone asks for the hell of it. You shouldn’t feel anything too out of the ordinary. However, you should go home and get yourself together the next three days are going to be rather confusing for you.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, the charm will pack everything about you into the chain you will wear and things can get rather disorienting, one of our field testers said the best way to cope was to sleep through it, less of a hassle that way.”

“I guess that would be a good idea, especially since Kaiden is always yelling at me that I’m in the office too much and Madison…-“

Once again, Madison’s hand covered Harry’s mouth before he could say anything more revealing or embarrassing for either him or the both of them. He smiled sheepishly when he pulled Madison’s hand away from his mouth, “Sorry, Maddy I forgot.”

Alex laughed at the byplay between the two, “Well if there isn’t anything else I have to get going. If you have any more questions you can always send me a page or a text or a call, whatever floats your boat?”

As he was heading to the door he turned around and said, “Let me be the first to welcome you to the United States, Hector Patrick Jameson.”

He grinned at the chagrined faces of the team as they had been having a semi-silent fight about who would be the first to address H in his new form. He shook his head at the antics of his favorite team. His hair once again changed and the Mohawk he’d been sporting now became a docile tangle of dreadlocks.

“Toodles! Got work to do and the world to create!”

“H-Hector, your face and your hair are changing! It’s kinda creepy, it’s like watching Polyjuice at work though way more disgusting!” yelled Graham.

“Jameson, if there’s nothing else that I need to be doing here I’m leaving, I expect you to take Alex Bell’s advice and go home and sleep it off. Chu, you go with him to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid,” with that the gruff leader of the US Ministry walked back towards his office.

“Ewwwwwwww…it’s gross!” said Sawyer and Aiden in unison, before turning to each other and having a slap fight about who was copying who.

Kelsey said, “Break it up you two,” before turning back to Hector, “Boss man what do you want us to do while you finish up with the charm?”

Hector looked thoughtful, “Well make sure you all read over the dossier and figure out the situation, if this is indeed the British trying to get me back we need to circumvent them. If it’s real then we need to start making plans.”

Jackson, find out what Ginny Weasley will be doing the entire time she’s going to be here, there’s got to be something more that we’re missing. Madison and Graham, your jobs are to research why the British are coming to us for help.

Kelsey and Sawyer, you are to look into your contacts in the EU and find out the political situation there and how far Britain has come, i.e. corruption, graft, whatever. Nigel and Christian you’ll be vetting the itinerary about what to show and not show Ms. Weasley about what we know and don’t know.

Aiden you’ll be working with Wyatt to plan our two-part strategy, if the case is the only reason why they’re coming here then we’ll help them. If they’re coming here to get Harry Potter back you find a way to circumvent them…but please don’t cause an international incident, we had enough of a problem last time explaining everything to Kaiden and I would prefer not having my eardrums being yelled into oblivion.

Is everyone clear about his or her assignments? While I’m gone and laid up for three days, Jackson can be second-in-command.

Now I’m off to go sleep for three days, bye and goodnight!”

Hector walked towards the door of the conference room and he was so close to the doorknob before a loud yell could be heard,

“DOGPILE!!!”

Everyone piled on top of Sawyer after he jumped on Hector and there was a huge mass of hugging and squealing and a couple of exaggerated pained groans.

It was much later when Hector and Madison made it out of the conference room, a baseball cap carefully concealing his features as they continued to change and distort, though there was no pain.

Reaching the lobby of the Ministry building, Hector turned to Madison, “Maddy darling, you don’t need to come tuck me into bed. I’m a grown man and can take care of myself.”

Madison shook her head, “Nope, not happening Jameson, Kaiden himself told me to take you home. I’m not shirking that duty not even when you throw those puppy-dog eyes at me so put them away.”

Hector smiled, “It was worth a try.”

She took his hand and headed to the apparition point, following the massive amounts of traffic headed in the same general direction.

“I have a question though, don’t people find it weird that Harry Potter’s girl is currently holding hands with another man?” asked Hector.

“Hector, you weren’t listening when I told you this before were you? You are my guy, that’s not going to change. You just pick up your life as you had it and the magic adapts to it.”

Hector gave her a peck on the cheek, “Did I ever mention how wonderful you are?”

Madison answered, “Maybe once or twice.”

“Well you are and I’m glad you’re with me, I wouldn’t know what to do when Ginny Weasley comes otherwise.”

“Jameson, you would have forgotten your own head somewhere had it not been for me,” Madison said jokingly.

Hector just smiled and hugged her tightly as she apparated them back to her apartment where he’d be staying till they were sure Ginny Weasley had no ulterior motive in coming to the States.

If the British thought that he would go back docilely to the hellhole of his native country, they had another think coming. Harry Potter was no one’s man but his own. Come hell or high water, he would protect himself and only those he thought as family.