The town near the hospital was exactly the same. Daphne had moved from the hotel into her room in the MACUSA rented house. She had not been told anything about why MACUSA wanted her back here.
“I’m glad you could come Daphne. What do you know about Thomas Lecky?” Jane Goodman was friendly but tense.
“I don’t know any person with that name.”
“OK, second question, what do you know about the uncontrolled magic incidents which have been happening here?”
“Only that there seemed to be similar incidents happening in London. Harry Potter has a team investigating, but they haven’t found anything. They really haven’t found anything; I would know if they were lying to me.”
“That’s why we asked you back here. You are the most powerful Legilimens we have seen, and you’re someone we can trust. We want you to do what you did on your last visit. Hang around town and look for anyone who knows the name Thomas Lecky. When you find them, message me straight away. We aren’t going to risk Lecky getting any warning. Also, anyone connected with Lecky is likely to be a proper dark wizard.”
The last time, Daphne’s happy hunting ground was the hospital workers bar. As she entered and approached the bar, she counted two hits. One was a young woman who knew Thomas Lecky. The next was young woman who Daphne knew by sight. They were the same woman, who was, Mariette Edgecombe. The text message to Jane was answered quickly. Daphne sat at the bar, within a minute Jane and Colin Patterson walked in the door. Daphne beckoned Jane to the bar. “She is sitting at the corner table, and I know who she is. She is Mariette Edgecombe. She was in my year at Hogwarts. Let me speak to her first, I assume we are looking for what the connection is with Lecky?” Jane nodded, Daphne got up and strolled to the corner table.
The table was bare, with one empty glass sitting in front of Mariette. “Hello stranger, what the hell are you doing here?”
It took a few seconds for recognition to set in. “Daphne Greengrass, you frightened me. Like you always used to do.”
“Sorry about that, Hogwarts wasn’t a great place for some of us was it. Do you mind if I sit down?”
“Sure, sit, to what do I owe this honour?”
“I don’t know about honour; you know that I write for The Daily Prophet.”
“No, I didn’t know that. You write under another name, don’t you?”
“Yep. I look for any story I can to make life uncomfortable for the fat cats who made money during the war while some of us suffered.”
There was an awkward silence. “Mariette, I have always wanted to say that I’m sorry for what happened with the boils and the scars on your face. They never really healed, did they?”
“No, I live here now, most witches here never heard the details about what happened. That seems to be enough to let people not see the pattern. But, of course, I still see it.”
“You know that I wasn’t in the Gryffindor Golden Trio admirers club at Hogwarts. Now I work with them, but I have to stay clear of the Weasleys. Let me tell you what I am doing here. I am looking for Leo Blake, The Viscount Pimlico. Every reporter in the wizarding world wants to get the story on what happened to him. I have a tip-off that Thomas Lecky has something to do with the kidnapping.”
“Yes, that sounds like him. Leo Blake is probably the biggest target he has ever had. He has kidnapped many victims before. MACUSA know all about him. I know just enough to stay away from him. That didn’t seem to worry those two muggles though.”
“Which two muggles?” Daphne was sure that no-one had said anything about muggles.
“One of them found me right here in this bar a couple of days before the kidnapping. They needed a witch to advise them about magic. That was weird. I told them that MACUSA would be hot on their trail for doing what they were doing. They had set up their computer in Thomas Lecky’s country and it started channelling magic from the raw magic flow. They made a full-size replica of a Crusader castle, a map showing the live location of all magical people within fifty miles, and they turned their cell phones into wands. I warned them about Lecky, but I was more concerned about saving my neck and I got out of there.”
“What are their names, and where are they now?” Daphne had heard more than enough.
“Professor Fischer and Freddy Jessen are still at Fischer’s muggle property, the Indian River Ranch. Fischer owns the muggle title, but it’s in Lecky’s country. Lecky ignores his muggle landowners, they can’t hurt him, but he will hurt them if he wants to.”
“Thanks Mariette. I’ll send you a potion from my mother’s private stock. It’ll help with the scars. Bye.”
Daphne stood up and left the bar. “Did you hear all of that?”
“Yes, we picked it up with our long ears.” Jane showed Daphne an earpiece with a long extension.
“That looks like a Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes product.”
The aurors and Daphne moved off along the street.
“Hello Daphne, was that Mariette Edgecombe you were talking to in the bar?”
Harry Potter and a tall tough looking wizard were standing in front of them.
“Harry! What is this?”
“A happy accident, possibly, although calling it an accident is a bit much.”
“Harry, this is Jane Goodman and Colin Patterson, they’re aurors from MACUSA.”
“Great, can we meet somewhere and talk about the situation?” Harry smiled happily at the aurors. They didn’t smile back.
Harry was still acting as though he was on holiday. “We are all here for the same thing, we are going to get Leo Blake back and shut down Thomas Lecky.”
“Do you mind if we bring Marietta with us?” Harry still had his maddening smiley face on.
“Why Harry? She’s not that happy with anyone knowing she’s here.” Daphne was puzzled at this request.
“I’d like to have her where someone can watch her. The last time you were here, she accidently nearly got you killed. I also think that Mariette could get involved and help us, if we give her a chance.”
The teams met together in the MACUSA house. Jane Goodman was not impressed with having any nomaj involved.
“Jane, they are already deeply involved. Jonathan and Anastasia Zaitseva are finding entrances into the magical universe without any magical help at all. We are certain that the two muggles Lecky has at the ranch have done the same thing.” Jane went from angry to appalled. Harry gave a short version of what had been done in London and what the situation was at the Indian River Ranch.
“You mean to tell me that these people have done this with no wizards or witches involved?”
“None at all, the Ministry in London is in full denial right now. The majority opinion is that this is a plot involving dark magic that has been hatched by former Death Eaters. The problem with that is that there is no evidence of any plot.” Harry was now getting angry.
“It has gone to the extent that I have had to take leave, the investigation I was running is now cancelled. The Ministry aurors have orders now to obliviate anyone who knows anything about it. They have no intention of finding out what the truth is. The people I have brought over are committed to getting Leo back. The Ministry seems to be willing to write him off. We have to move against Lecky tonight. There is no time to wait for reinforcements. The situation with Lecky and those muggles is too dangerous to wait any longer.”
“What is Ginny doing now Harry?” Daphne was shaken by this breakdown in trust.
“I have asked her to stay with her parents and keep them out it as much as she can. She is very conflicted. The war, and ancient magical feuds can’t be shrugged off. The best that I can hope for is that the Weasley clan will stay out it until we get a result.”
“What proof do you have for any of this?” Colin Patterson asked the sensible auror’s question.
“Mariette has been to the ranch and seen the magically made objects. She has seen the map Fischer and Jessen made which shows all nearby magical people. If they look at it right now, they will see all of us wizards and witches, but not the muggles. This is why I want them involved. My revised plan is to have two cars of muggles drive into the ranch, acting the part of lost tourists. Lecky usually ignores muggles so at the start they should be safe enough. John, Mary, Roland, Robert, Louisa, and Graham have full length hex proof outfits. They are also carrying firearms which have been charmed to cut through all known wards protecting wizards. This gear was well and truly proved at the attempted kidnapping in France. Roland and Robert gave those kidnapper wizards an awful shock. Only Louisa has not had military or police firearms training, I understand that she has been getting personal tuition from Graham in her own target practice range at Purbeck Square.”
“Why, what can they do?” Jane still did not look happy.
“They have to get as close as possible to where Leo and Anastasia are being held. When they are in position, we will shut down the raw magic flow.”
“Hold on, you can control it.” Jane looked as though she did not believe it.
“Yes, Jonathan shut down the flow in London by asking it to. It shut down, and the computer stopped being magical. Jonathan did this using the computer and no other magical device. Once it is shut down there is no way we know of to start it up again.”
“All these years, Lecky has been able to thumb his nose at us and a nomaj machine could have shut him down.” Colin was more than surprised.
“We have to time this closely. As soon as the wards against MACUSA are down you can go after Lecky. We have our own map of his country provided by the ranch computer. It shows Lecky and his wizard gang. Lecky keeps them away from the ranch. He is the only one we have seen go there.”
“How many are there?”
“There are no more than four. It looks like they sometimes leave his country, but Lecky never does.”
“We have six aurors ready to move in, can we all get copies of this map.” Harry used his wand to make copies of the map, all charmed to work the same. Colin marvelled at the map. “We could use these everywhere. I hope you can give us the spells to make them.”
“Professor Flitwick is decoding that right now. The original was made up by the raw magic flow after being asked to by the computer.”
“I want Daphne and Mariette to collect the prisoners. It will be safer to have them apparated or ported out of there if there is any resistance.”
Harry unfolded a new map; “Daphne, in this detailed map of the ranch, you can see the room where Leo is. I want you to apparate in there, take Leo and apparate him straight back here. Mariette, I want you to apparate into the room next to Leo, Anastasia is in there. She is a muggle so you can’t safely apparate her out. I have made this portkey that you can take with you. It will activate as soon as you arrive. Just grab Anastasia and you will both be ported back here.”
“The outside team will keep the two muggles busy. You will try to get them both out of the building where they are staying. They have both been seen carrying guns. I have no idea if they will use them or not. You will have to play it by ear. If Lecky shows up, dive for cover and try to keep him busy until MACUSA come to take him.
“This isn’t what we usually do for a class reunion, Daphne, Mariette. Neither of you have had an easy time at school or since then. I can’t fix that. But I hope things go better for you both from now on, just keep your heads down if the curses start flying. I don’t want to have to explain to your parents if you don’t come home.” The teams looked at Harry, if there was any doubt about his history, it was suddenly gone. No one questioned him. They all started preparing to go into action.
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