Disclaimer - I don't own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or Disney or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let's goooo!
Hogwarts
–Damian Hawthorne–
As he paced in his dorm room, his mind running in circles as the tracking incident remained at the forefront of his mind, preventing sleep from claiming him, he felt and then heard Terry Boot wake up and ask him in a groggy voice, "Damian? What are you doing up?"
Turning around, he looked at the yawning Terry. Sweet, naive Terry, who had no idea he was awake at this point in time every single day, even for the weekends. Shaking his head, "Nothing, just can't sleep. Go to sleep, Terry."
Terry did not protest any further, as he went back to sleep, his breathing evening out moments later, as he looked outside and saw the darkness recede, signalling the impending arrival of the sun. He really needed to figure out who or what was looking for him out there and if they could track him down to this place or not.
Just sitting duck was not an option, either. Not only would it potentially endanger Hogwarts as a whole along with all the students, it also ran the high risk of exposing his identity. If only he had any opportunity to get out of the castle, even for short periods of time. As things stood, first years could basically only get out for Quidditch lessons, and even they were supervised and short, when compared to the time third years got into Hogsmeade.
Not knowing what else to do, he just sat down on his bed, staring into the distance, trying to think of the parties he might have offended, that had the resources to cast such potent tracking spells, to the point they were capable of getting past Hogwarts' wards. The curse, if it could even be called that, was nothing nefarious, beyond its ability to blare his current location in a long range ping that could easily be caught by anyone within a hundred miles or so, more if they used a targeted ritual instead of a single use spell.
The biggest ones that came to his mind were the Wakandans, or the Uagadou School of Magic, who had both the motive and the magical know-how to do this. Aside from them, the best bets were either the Unspeakables or someone from Kamar Taj, but that organisation would not have the need to do this.
He still had a bone to pick with the person who basically forced him to use alternate means to deal with the 50 thralls in London. He hadn't spoken with Master Corven for months now, very busy with his preparations to get here, and as things might turn out, his preparations were not enough, atleast in terms of keeping his identity hidden.
If someone dared attack him inside the wards, well, the magical equivalent of a nuclear bomb was very much the definition of Dark Magic, something that he abhorred using, but desperate times might necessitate its use. Something that broke down magic at its base, decaying into radioactive energy, was very much the magical equivalent of Weapon of Mass Destruction, and he did not want the magical equivalent of the world's police jumping him.
That was most definitely the last resort. Theoretical scenario for that would be Dumbledore, people from Uagadou, Hogwarts, and more, just jumping him at the same time, where straight forward victory was impossible, especially with Hogwarts' restriction.
He was brought out of his thoughts by the sunlight hitting his face. He looked up to see the sun rising, casting an orange shade in the otherwise dark room, forcing Terry to grumble in his sleep and turn to the wall, to get that extra hour of sleep. They still had two more hours before they had to reach the Great Hall, so he definitely couldn't fault Terry for that.
Realising that he was just thinking himself into a corner, he decided to go out and check if Hogwarts was still permitting him to go on a run or not. It stood to reason that if Hogwarts was not going to let him go anywhere but his dorm, then it should be the same for other students as well. If that truly was the case, then it would be a true scandal, ripe for the rag known as Daily Prophet to exploit as, he had come to realise, truly interesting news, was very rare in the magical world. Magical Britain, at the very least.
With that in mind, he went down to the common area, and seeing that there was no one there, he opened the dorm room, half expecting to see the same labyrinth of walls, hallways, and floating stairs, but no, it was completely normal. As if the events of a couple hours ago were just a fleeting dream.
Taking a cautious step outside, he looked both sides before taking the next step, sighing in relief when he saw no obvious aberration in his path. Taking a step back, he went back to his room to get changed. Terry, having sensed something, grumbled in his sleep but did not wake up, as he changed, put on his shoes, his magical weights, and went to run.
Exercise did always clear his mind.
…..
….
On his third round around the Great Lake, he felt it. A magical signature, an odd one, hanging around on one edge of the Great Lake. As he passed the corner for the fourth time, he felt it once more, but oddly enough, they weren't doing anything as he couldn't feel anything else.
No magical fluctuations from an active spell, just the smooth static of a magical wall. As if a magical wall had been raised in front of him, with the wall being capable of mimicking the ambient magical signature down to very accurate levels.
He had felt it before, he realised, and only just managed to keep himself calm and his running pattern the same. Realising that one of his earlier guesses was right and it was Wakanda or Uagadou here, made his heart rate quicken, as he did two more rounds, just one short of what he regularly did before beating it to his dorm room.
As he entered his dorm and robotically went to the bathrooms, his mind continued to run doomsday scenarios after scenarios, as the presence of Wakandans here meant that they had managed to track him down, and entered the premises so fast, to boot.
The only consolation he had, was that they did not know his exact magical signature of how he looked, otherwise he would have been for the fight of his lifetime back near the Great Lake.
Their presence here meant they were most certainly here through official channels as entering Hogwarts without alerting the castle itself and the Headmaster was all but impossible, and no matter his criticism of Dumbledore, the man could be trusted to at least protect the students.
Well, from an external threat anyway.
Their speed did not bode well for him, as that suggested desperation and he did not want them to take any actions out of desperation. Out of options when it came to confronting them and staying put, also not being an option, his mind went to options that were frankly illogical.
One of them was calling William and having him escorted off the campus for a family emergency, something that no one could deny them simply because of their pureblood status, and also because it was part of the Hogwarts rules. Once he was out, he could confront the members on his own terms, out in the open, summarily hand their asses to them, and send them packing back to Wakanda before returning to Wakanda as a model student, with a fake medical emergency that was all clear now.
The Hawthornes will certainly go with him, if only to get him to spend more time with the family.
There were many problems with that option. For one, him leaving school in the middle of nowhere, and the Giant Killer appearing out in London would be a dead giveaway, especially since they had previously tracked him down to Hogwarts. At that point, he might as well walk around with a board hanging around his neck, declaring his secret identity to the world.
Secondly, that would just bring the Hawthornes, the smarter ones anyway, one step closer to figuring out who he really was. Now, he was not sure if they would jump to pitchforks as so far, they had been incredibly well behaved and supportive, but he would much rather have no one know about him. Well, save for certain old bald magical monsters, but that particular person knew almost everything by default anyway so they did not count.
The second option was to don his Giant Killer persona and confront them inside the castle, forcing them back with his magical might. That one was just a can of worms waiting to be opened. It ran the risk of Dumbledore using Hogwarts against him. IT ran the risk of him losing and having the name of the Hawthorne family dragged through the mud, as he was officially responsible for multiple pureblood deaths, not that they did not deserve it.
Also, there was the off chance that the ones coming here actually had some skill and managed to push him back in terms of magic, forcing him to rely on his specialty. His literal, otherworldly speciality and that was enchanted objects. Magical weaponry that would shatter them from the inside out. Using them would just place him on an international watchlist. Another dead end in terms of options.
Even as he got dressed and watched Terry get ready in a frenzy because he thought he was late and his roommate did not bother correcting him, he had no real answer to his question.
If you would like to read ahead 12 chapters ahead, you can head to my P*treon.