FicWad

Chapter 8 – First Meeting


In the lavish conference room, Jameson’s team lounged in the assorted surfaces with varying degrees of comfort. Jackson, taking over as leader in Hector’s absence sat at the head of the table with neat stacks of paperwork piled in front of him, while fiddling with his music player.


Madison and Kelsey sat in the corner with their heads bowed together giggling over a fashion magazine, which Kelsey had picked up on her way into work. The remnants of their breakfast still scattered before them. Graham was slouched over by the window with his eyes closed and his hat pulled over his eyes, catching a few more winks before work was due to arrive. Wyatt was seated in almost the same position, across the room.


Nigel, Christian, and Sawyer, each equipped with a large coffee were leaning against the wall closest to the door, talking in whispers and furtively glancing at Graham every so often and grinning their mischievous grins. Aiden and Wallace were seated on the other side of Jackson discussing the newspaper, which upon closer inspection showed them to be arguing about the merits of different comic strips.

When the clock rang signaling nine o’clock, Jackson cleared his throat,


“Report Team, our meeting will be arrive in 15 minutes and you all need to be awake and lively, we cannot be caught unawares.”


Kelsey spoke up, “Relax Jax, everything will be fine. They don’t know what they’re dealing with here!”


Jackson glanced at her, before easing the tension in his shoulders, “I know, I’m just worried about the boss man.”


Madison spoke up, “Jax, Hector is fine. I almost had to stun him because he wanted to be here to support us today, but he’s still not finished with the transformation. Hector thinks you’ll do fine or else he wouldn’t have seconded you.”


Sawyer said in his slow drawl, “Chill!”


Nigel and Christian nodded their agreement, Graham said in a sleepy voice,


“We’re all really good at this and finally for a chance to get them back for all they’ve done to the boss man.”


Aiden and Wyatt made noises of agreement, of the team they had been the most vocal in their defense of Hector and all that he went through, even if they didn’t know the whole story, they had a feeling it was pretty bad if he never spoke of his time there.


Jackson smiled at the team, “Thanks, I…”


Whatever he was going to say got cut off with the knock on the door sounding three times then twice in sequence. This was the signal their appointment was making her way up to the conference room. Immediately, all evidence of personal items were swept away, clothes were straightened, hair was fixed, chairs were rearranged and cups of coffee steamed away silently before everyone.


A light knock sounded,


“Mr. Cafris, a Ginerva Weasley is here to see you.”


Jackson rose from his seat and stepped over to open the door,


“Thank you Becky, please show her in.”


After being briefed the previous day, everyone knew what to expect when Ginerva Weasley stepped through the conference room doors, a slight woman about average height, with flowing red hair and a smattering of tiny freckles across her face. She was dressed very fashionably, perhaps a little too much for an appointment with an Auror team.


Reaching out Jackson extended his hand and smiled charmingly, “Hello, Ms. Weasley, my name is Jackson Cafris and I am the team leader for our little ragtag group.


Ginny shook his hand quickly before saying, “Please call me Ginny, if we’re going to be working together it makes little sense for us to be so formal.


Turning to face the rest of the team who had risen to greet her, she said, “Please, all of you do the same.”


Jackson chuckled, “If you would do us the honor of doing the same, it’s as you say, it would make no sense for us to be so formal in such a situation. Now let us introduce ourselves”


“Madison Chu.”


“Graham Masters”


“Kelsey Anderson”


“Sawyer Cadwallader”


“Nigel Yates, here”


“Christian Blythe, there”


“Aiden Wallace”


“And I’m Wyatt Grec.”


Jackson continued, “Now that introductions are over, let’s get down to business: tea or coffee?”


Ginny was startled; she wasn’t expecting that before she smiled back at him. He seemed to know just what to say to put her at ease.


“I’ll have tea, Earl Grey if you please,” she answered snappily back.


“Terrible choice! The tea is pretty awful here, should have gone with the coffee” said one of the men grinned at her, who she thought was named Christian.


Another man came over to grab a chair for her from the other end of the table, where she sat down gratefully, it had been a rather hectic morning since she had gotten up. Soon a steaming cup of tea appeared in front of her, the aroma waking up the rest of her senses that were still on England time.


Picking the cup up, she sniffed it twice and took a sip, letting it clear her mind.


“Alright, then let’s get down to business,” Jackson said, as her grabbed the neat stacks of paperwork and sending it down the table till everyone had gotten a copy, including Ginny.


“Attached is the dossier we have received from England’s Ministry of Magic, and Ginny here will be explaining the situation more in-depth and answering questions and the like for us today. If you would please begin, Ginny.”


Ginny set her cup on the table before paging through the dossier before her. It was as she had expected, since she had helped with its original creation. Glancing at the author’s signature before she began to speak.


“This all started with V-Voldemort some years ago, I’m sure you’ve heard of him. He had been terrorizing the country and had gotten some magical help in extending his lifespan, which was pretty illegal. However, due to a prophecy made by a seer he was defeated for good by our nation’s hero, some years back. This was all well and good, seeing as his minions, or Death Eaters as they were called had been linked to him through a magical tattoo so they all died with him on that day.


With his defeat was a time for rebuilding, and peace. We let our guard down because we were happy this terror was gone that we forgot with such a blow to the dark side there was a void waiting to be filled. We didn’t consider there had been darker elements waiting in the wings for Voldemort to be gone before they tried their grasp for power. It would even have been easier had it been one or two stronger elements duking it out.


No, it’s never that simple.


The fact of the matter is that there are currently about 15 individuals currently involved and at least 5 more who had been in Voldemort’s ranks but never received his special tattoo because they had been deemed too valuable to throw away like that. Now the English Ministry would not be coming to you if this problem were just trying to keep 20 wizards and/or witches in check. Each wizard has gathered a small following and each time any of them meet, in any situation or place a battle breaks out. Our Aurors are being run ragged, but as my days in the fight against Voldemort have shown me, this isn’t very efficient as all we’re doing is reacting and not doing anything to stop the problem in it’s tracks.


That’s where you all come in. My associates and I have gone through the credentials and experience of different teams from around the world, and it seems as though you all are very well suited for this job. Because that is not the entire story, up until this point I’ve only told you what the dossier said. What it doesn’t tell you is what exactly is going on.


It’s smuggling of illegal drugs and of body parts, now this is not the usual smuggling activity every country has to deal with. First off, these smugglers take already Muggle-enhanced drugs and add intoxicating and additive potions to them so all it takes is one full dosage in the lunar cycle for the user to be hooked. We’ve been researching ways to deal with the withdrawal symptoms and to flush the potion and the drugs out of the human body, and nothing works. There’s also the issue of body parts, not of animals but of humans. I’m sure you’re all aware that most things that require human body parts are generally not those with good intentions or about the furthering of goodwill towards men. Our teams are also 85% positive that these body parts were taken from Muggles who were drugged and/or killed or put under the Imperius curse.


These activities and others along a similar vein are exploding and more and more incidents crop up each day. Your team has had the plenty of experience dealing with organized crime before, which was one of the main reasons why both my associates and I think you would be able to help us contain this problem.”


Ginny ended her speech, surprised to find that at some point she had gotten up and had been pacing the length of the conference room. With her sleeves rolled up and her hair come partially undone she hoped she had made her point. When the last Voldemort war ended with it died most of Britain’s credibility.

Jackson nodded his head slowly, his own particular way of processing information, which he had gotten from Hector. Looking around at the solemn faces of his team, he saw they had already made up their mind. Such atrocities that Ginny Weasley had described was exactly those which they sought to prevent. Even with the reservations any of them might have concerning Hector, this problem would stop it in their tracks.

After getting everyone’s acquiescence, they turned to him to convey their acceptance. No matter their own personal feelings about certain elements of the case, this required their assistance before any more innocent people got hurt in the process.


“Ginny, well it seems that the team and I agree that such acts of depravity cannot be allowed to continue. We’ll take on the case with our usual fees and exceptions, but those can be saved for when we jump across the pond.”


Ginny allowed herself a genuine smile for the first time in the meeting. Having this team in pursuit of their objective would help their own Aurors track down these scum and dregs of the Wizarding World. A buzzing in her wand reminded her of her other task here, she would have to tread carefully because this was not specifically covered in the clause of her stay.


“Before we break off to make our arrangements, I do have a question and a request.”
Jackson, who was in the process of calling for Becky to iron out the details, raised an eyebrow and put the phone back in the carrier before replying,


“If the question and the request are in my power, I will do what I can. More than that I cannot promise you.


Ginny nodded jerkily, “A man, by the name of Harry James Potter was transferred here three years ago. He has family and friends back in England who wish to speak to him but we’ve lost track of him when he moved over here. I was under the impression he was part of this elite crack team, is it possible for me to meet up with him and speak to him? Or if he’s not with this team, perhaps he can be placed on a special consult, he has skills particularly adapted to working on cases such as these.”


Without a flinch Jackson replied, “Sorry Potter transferred out after the fourth mission with us. I haven’t heard what happened to him since that point, I think it was about a year and a half or so ago when he left.”


Wyatt piped up, “Jax, Potter quit very soon after that, said he was tired of playing the game and I think he said he was going to go on a world tour. I’m not quite sure because I heard it from my buddy downstairs who heard it from Bell.”


Madison spoke up, “I heard from Felicity down in Accounting that he was going to go buy and island or something. But after he left, he disappeared off the face of the earth.”


Ginny fought a wince; no one was going to be happy about this back home. This was the closest lead they had to finding Harry and suddenly it sounded like it had gone cold a year and a half ago. One of the biggest incentives, asking the Americans for help was they knew where Harry was and perhaps under the proper persuasion, might give the British Harry. This would in no way violate the International MLE ruling, because he would be coming back under his own free will.


Shaking her head and she forced a smile before saying, “Oh, well I guess that’s just too bad. Never mind that then, let’s get started on the paperwork.”


Aiden spoke up, “Actually Jax, you forgot about Hector.”


Turning to Ginny he said, “Sorry Ms. Ginny, Hector’s out sick today but he’s usually part of our “crack force” as you put it. He’ll be with us on the next occasion we meet up, but he’s sorry he had to miss such an important meeting today.”


Ginny nodded, “It’s quite alright. I do hope he feels better soon.”


Graham got up at Jackson’s signal to help Ginny with the paperwork to start the contracted work. As soon as they cleared the landing, three high powered silencing spells and anti-eavesdropping spells hit the door and the walls of the room.


“I knew it!” yelled Nigel and he jumped around the room.


“I knew the only reason they wanted to work with us, wasn’t because we’re the best, even though we are, but because they wanted a crack at him. They want him back! I so totally knew it!” he yelled again before flopping down on a cushy armchair.


Kelsey shook her head and rolled her eyes, “Ni, we all knew it. Remember why we had Alex use the spell to begin with? The point of this whole exercise is to see if this was the case. But now we do have an actual case to deal with.”


Aiden and Sawyer simultaneously reached out smacked Nigel on the back of the head.


“OW!” he whined, rubbing the back of his head, as though it actually hurt.


Madison and Christian chuckled watching the antics of the team before glancing at each other and rolling their eyes at Nigel. Wyatt sat back and closed his eyes; this might take a while for everyone to calm down again.


Jackson banged the table twice, “Quiet everyone! Okay, despite the fact that we all knew this was coming we do actually have a case to deal with. All the assignments that Hector gave you all yesterday I want you to finish and once that’s done. I want you all to familiarize yourselves with our situation. Find out everything that needs to be known or understood about our associates in the British Ministry and about this whole smuggling business. This has the potential to get nasty like the Capote case last month.”


Everyone winced; the Capote case had basically devolved into Edward Capote, who controlled the magical items smuggling trade, threatening every single person at his trial, until his verdict was passed to be shipped off to Riker’s where he hadn’t spoken since.


“Now if we’re all done, Hector will be back on Monday, today being Tuesday that should give you all enough time to do this and be ready to brief him about all we’ve found out about the case,” Jackson said.


Then as though a switch was flipped, he grinned, “By the way guys, I wonder where Potter is now, on an island in the middle or nowhere? In a jungle somewhere? Sitting downstairs being boring? Or perhaps sitting at home watching bad TV reruns? If anything, we’ve definitely sent those former friends of his on a wild goose chase around the world. It was perhaps lucky there were so many spells on the conference room door; the loud laughter would have brought people running had it been heard outside of the room.


-----

Graham was definitely bored, he hated paperwork, and he especially hated other people doing paperwork while he was waiting for them. Humming a song to himself, he walked to the end of the hallway and glanced out the window absently waiting for Ginny to be finished filling out the official forms.


“Mr. Masters? Mr. Masters?” said a voice to his right.


Looking over he saw the new intern, Maggie, holding a stack of papers out to him. “Mr. Masters, you need to sign these for the approval or the head of the department to authorize spending, weapons, and other miscellaneous items.”


“Ah, yes! Completely forgot about that. Do you have a pen of some sort so I can go through everything?” he asked.


“Yes, it’s on my desk, over there,” she pointed down the hall where Ginny Weasley was still filling out the paperwork. Shrugging to himself he put his hands in his pocket and walked next to Maggie back down there, something to kill time at least.


As he smiled his most charming smile he asked, “So Maggie, have you been here long?”


“No Mr. Master’s I’ve just graduated from school and I’m here just to figure out what I want to do while out of the summer,” she replied softly.


“Ah, please call me Graham, I can’t abide pretty girls who call me Mr. Masters, it makes me think my dad is here and then I think I’m in trouble,” he smiled at her again.


Almost stuttering she answered, “Of course, Mr. Ma-I mean Graham. I know the feeling-g. Now if-f you could sign these I can get them up to Mr. Kaiden for-r you soon.”


Graham chuckled, his reputation was still intact, another intern had fallen for him; this put him three ahead of Sawyer but still two behind Aiden and Wyatt though finally he tied with Nigel and Christian.


As they approached her desk, “So Maggie, do you like working here at least? Exciting and thrills and all that?”



“I-I love working here, everyone’s so n-nice and they-y take the time to help me-e when I’ve no idea what to do. I even met-t Harry Potter a while ago. I got-t really lost down-n in the archives-s and he just so happened to be down there look-king for something. He brought-t me back up here and told-d me if-f I needed help to come-e find him. But I haven’t-t seen him in a l-long time.”


Graham grinned again, “That sounds like Potter, it’s nice that you’re enjoying your time here. Wouldn’t want the American Ministry to be treating our new interns badly now.”


He started signing the forms in front of him, while making small talk with Felicity who had stopped stuttering on every other word, as she got more comfortable with him. Signing his last form with a flourish he handed it back to Felicity before winking at her. Glancing over at Ginny he realized she had just wrapped things up too.


“Ready to go, Ginny?” he asked.


Ginny nodded before handing back the orderly stack of papers to Maggie, a contrast to the strewn papers Graham handed over.


“Maggie, it was great talking to you. We must speak again soon. I leave those papers in your hands,” he winked before he started down the hall with Ginny following him looking speculatively back at Felicity.


“Do you need me to arrange transportation back to your hotel or to the airport? Graham asked once they were situated in the elevator going down.


Ginny looked confused, “I have a portkey to apparation coordinates.”


Graham nodded, “Airport it is! Here in New York particularly, people don’t notice a lot of things in airports that’s why it makes it so much easier, especially working things out with customs.”


Ginny nodded, “When I arrived, I was met by a representative I think at John K. something arepot? He told me that when I wanted to leave to go back there and I’d be fine to make my way back because I could clear customs easily?”


Graham laughed, “I think you mean John F. Kennedy airport, and yes if we’ve registered you upon entry into the country. When you leave it’s easy as pie since we can track the magical residue from the portkey with your magical signature on file.”


Arriving at the lobby he asked the doorman to hail a cab to JFK and take care of the details, turning to back to Ginny he smiled before saying, “This is where I’ll be leaving you. We shall meet again in three weeks time!”


He patted her shoulder twice and turned heel back towards the elevator bank, before turning back to the doorman who held the door of the cab open for her. Glancing back towards the elevator she got into the cab and sat back for the ride.


-----

The ride took about 45 minutes till she was dropped off in front of a nondescript building, a sign sparkled at the edge of her vision that said, “Portkey and Apparation transfers this way” Following the sign she reached a security scanner, passing through carefully, nothing beeped and she continued onward. Reaching into her now-resized bag, she pulled out a thick piece of paper that merely said, “TICKET (ROUND-TRIP) England – New York --- New York - England”


She stepped through the double doors to the Portkey transfer station, the doors locked automatically behind her. Flinching slightly at the automatic click, she tapped the portkey twice and said, “England.” With a blur of brightly colored lights she was gone and the door unlocked behind her waiting for the next transfer.


After the portkey dropped her off in the London Customs office, she went to the apparation point and went onward home. Before she could flop back down onto her couch she had to do one more thing. Reaching over to the Floo, she slipped in a vial into the appropriate opening, “Hermione Granger!” Ginny stuck her head into the fire and waited for her friend to answer her fire.


“Ginny! You’re back! What happened?” Hermione asked.


“Hermione, he’s not there anymore. I asked his team, or rather his former team and they said he quit a while back.” Ginny answered softly.


Hermione almost stumbled back in shock, before grabbing an ottoman to regain her balance.


“Th-that was the last lead we had to Harry, he’s really gone isn’t he?” Hermione asked, her voice begging Ginny to say no.


Ginny nodded slowly, “I’m sorry Hermione, you can ask them when they get here in three weeks. But they have no idea where he went. I’m sorry.”


Hermione couldn’t bring herself to answer before nodding. Ginny, understanding her friend needed some time alone said her goodbyes and closed the connection; she needed sleep before going to work for the debriefing.