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Guest Quarters, Hogwarts
–T'Kano Virex–
He paced in the guest quarters that had been assigned to them in this magnificent castle. Magnificent, not because of its outer beauty but because of its magical significance. He had seen far better works of architecture, but never one that was so suffused with magic that it might as well be called a magical relic at this point.
Even their fabled Treasury only had four or five artifacts that could surpass this magical beauty. It was just as stressful as it was exciting to be given the opportunity to live within such magical premises. Exciting because of the chance to see it in action, and considering the complexity and vastness of the wards he could feel, he wagered that no one aside from their Elder could unravel them, not without bringing down the collective wrath of the leylines this castle ran on.
Stressful because depending on their actions in this foreign land, they might never get the chance to step in here ever again, not without barging in anyway.
Elder Kato was off to the side, seated on a sofa, his eyes glazed over, as they all awaited the result of the Grand Ritual that was being conducted in one of the sister islands of this country. As a precautionary measure, they were not told any details of the Grand Ritual, only that the Grand Elder of the Tribe had authorised it and it was to be used to catch the odd magical signature they had captured towards the end of the invasion.
More than once, the question had come to his mind, but he had refrained from voicing it out loud, when he had seen the Elders as well as the Grand Elders go to escalating measures to catch someone who was, by all means, a third party to their conflict. Someone who had sneaked into their country for nefarious purposes but was certainly not responsible for the deaths.
Just the flash of the casualties had him digging his nails in his palm, as he took a deep breath to calm down. Even through that anger, he knew that this Giant Killer fellow was not the killer of their children, as the Grand Elder had already dispatched multiple members of their tribe to track down the fiends who were perverting the blessings from both Bast and Mother Magic.
All of this was because the Grand Elder was interested in the magical signature, and probably wanted to meet the person who had managed to create enhancements capable of stopping the Disintegration curse for even a tenth of a second, which is what allowed the Giant Killer to survive, otherwise the curse was designed to follow the target until their soul signature was extinguished.
The interest was nothing alarming, though, as the Grand Elder was known to spend months on end, deep in his experimental phase, creating weapons, enchantments, and more, for his fancy for magical research was endless. One of the fruits of that research obsession was the Disintegration curse dispenser, a one use weapon gifted to Wakanda that they installed in important locations, capable of utter disintegration with no magical or energy defense capable of stopping it.
That was the understanding up until now, but apparently, someone out there had outdone the Grand Elder himself and built something capable of halting the curse for even a short period of time, something that the Grand Elder himself confessed could not do. He could detect its activation and move out of the way, but he could not stop it once it hit his person.
Shaking his head, he stopped questioning the weird decisions that the Grand Elder took on a daily basis and tried to resume his meditation, because that's all there was to do in this castle. Their attempts to explore the castle, at a time when no students should be present outside, were constantly thwarted by the castle, as it continued to trap them in never ending hallways, stairs that had no end, corners that looped back, and more.
All so that they could not access any other part of the castle other than the ones assigned to them. Kato had expected that and had warned him about it, but he was determined to see what the castle would do about it, and he had to say, he was not disappointed in the slightest.
The way the castle manipulated magic was both seamless and beautiful. Had it not been for his decades of practice in their art of Subtleties, a technique form invented by their Grand Elder, he would have never been able to feel the intricacies of the magic that the castle used to manipulate matter as if it were liquid.
An always on, all encompassing, transfiguration spell, enveloping the entire castle.
He was brought out of his thoughts about the castle with two minor buzzing sounds. The sounds might be minor, but that sound brought the activities of all three people in the room to a halt. Getting up to his feet, he stepped forward and placed his palm on the box, injecting a sliver of the magic that had been imparted to him when they left, into the box. The box, recognising the encrypted magical signature, glowed softly before it began floating slightly in the air, projecting a video feed for them to see.
"Greetings, Elder Kato," Fellow members of his tribe, cloaked, greeted them. Even their voices were modulated, to remove any chance of recognition, for they were not yet authorised to reveal themselves to the rest of the world.
"Greetings," Elder Kato replied, "What are the results of the Grand Ritual?"
"We are currently en route back home, Elder Kato. One of the members suffered grievous injuries due to the backlash."
Backlash? So the ritual failed? Before he could express his shock at that statement, they spoke once more.
"It was not a complete failure, Elder Kato. Mother Magic shines upon us for now. We have managed to get their general direction. Even though an extremely intricate Grand Construct managed to destroy the blood traces, the curse, and the mind magics placed on top of it, we were able to slip the magic trace through, but that too was destroyed by the target instantly, before we could get a lock in."
The relief in Elder Kato's voice was palpable, "So you have his general location."
"Yes, Elder Kato. His last known location was in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
There was silence all around their room before it was broken by his soft, "Oh."
He could practically feel the three minds all moving at once. All the reports, the images, the split second slowed down videos, the testimonies, and more. Of the armoured figure being much taller than the person inside. The person, whose blurry dimensions were visible for a split second before they disappeared.
"He's a student?!" Kato whispered out loud, the declaration hitting all of them like a physical blow.
"That can't be true, right?"
Except, the more he thought of it, the more it rang true. Still, they shouldn't jump to conclusions here. They needed more information before they could make a decision that could potentially sentence someone to an interaction with the Grand Elder, and that was never pleasant, not even for the members of the tribe, let alone outsiders.
"We need more information." He voiced his opinion out loud.
Edler Kato, instead of replying to him, turned to the projection and, after wishing for a speedy recovery for the injured member, deactivated the box, and only after was the communication device stored away in a secure and, more importantly, quarantined box, did he reply to his question.
His voice was tired and resigned, as if they were about to do something he absolutely did not want to do and yet, recognised the need to do it, "Dumbledore will never agree to it. He will die before he will let us anywhere near the children here."
"Oh."
"Oh, indeed," Kato said bitterly, chuckling as he collapsed in the chair behind him, "We are going to have to fight Dumbledore, inside his castle."
Oh, shit. They were f*cked.
If you would like to read ahead 12 chapters ahead, you can head to my P*treon.