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Little Hangleton, London
–Damian Hawthorne–
He floated just a couple of feet off the ground, overlooking the ruins of the Shack that he just obliterated with half a dozen exploding stones, the claw looking through the rubble, programmed to latch onto the first magical item it could find, and so far, it had picked up pieces of metal, that soon turned to ashes anyway.
He could still feel that piece of vile magic, and the intensity of it made him glad to use the current distance. Man, he really wished he had portal magic. He would have just sent that Dark Magic to either the sun or, failing that, to the inside of some volcano, to be burned off by the heat.
Just then, he felt the claw click into place, as it had dug somewhat into the flooring. He carefully picked it up and lifted the claw, making sure that his finger was on the manual release hatch, just in case.
His recent brush with death made him really paranoid and that was a good thing. He was getting a bit complacent there, thinking that he could handle most things with just rudimentary magic and admittedly awesome, but still nowhere near the top, enchantment.
Hell, the one enchantment that he could say with absolute certainty was that his best was Calm Mind, and even that was just a copied one, from the starter clothes that the ROB gave him.
His eyes narrowed as he saw a small casket of sorts, roughly the size of a book, with the wood splintered and decaying in places, yet holding onto whatever it was inside. It was completely black and seemed to be sucking in light falling on top of it. A moment later, the surrounding temperature dropped as well, as the magic within seemed to be reacting to being moved or being near his magic, he did not know.
What he did know was that he had to destroy it, but how? His magic howled at him that it was an abomination of nature that had to be cleansed off the surface of the planet, but he had no concrete method of doing so.
He could try melting it using the thermal laser back home, but that would mean bringing such filth into his home, where he slept, and that did not sit well with him. Plus, the explosions here must have certainly alerted someone. He did put up the curtain to contain the sound but the explosions must be visible to anyone who looked, not to mention the magic being used.
The Ministry of Magic maintained a repository of all magical residences, registered ones anyway, so they could officially use magic to ward off mortals. By design, it must be loosely enforced, allowing pureblood nobles to get away with using magic on muggles anywhere, but on the off chance they had this location registered, they could come to investigate.
Reading that book on what the Ministry does and how it carries out those functions was really helping him here. For example, he knew that the standard Auror response, especially for small non magical towns like this, was in days instead of hours. Which meant he had plenty of time to decide on what he would be doing with this.
The disintegration cannon from Wakanda flashed through his mind, as he gingerly picked up the wooden casket, and flew up, cloaked obviously.
Fortunately, he predicted something like this might happen, so he brought a little containment unit with him, a box capable of storing objects roughly the size of that casket and keeping it sealed shut. Even with that though, he was not going to risk anything.
Careful not to let his magic touch that casket, he threw the wooden box into the glowing yellow rectangular box that flickered red as it did its job of sealing the object inside. He slumped slightly in relief as he quickly flew away, monitoring any magical leakage from the containment unit but thankfully, nothing of that sort happened.
Flying a couple of miles, he found a place with dense trees and very little space for any human activities. Digging a hole, he placed the containment unit deep into the ground, before filling it back in.
He can track his containment unit using the satellites he had in place, so no risk of forgetting this place. Giving the surroundings one last look, he turned around and teleported, returning to base.
A portable version of the thermal laser and a containment unit, just in case he lit the atmosphere on fire, should not take more than a few days. Until then, that Horcrux should remain safe and away from human activity.
The thought of tinkering just blew all his worries away as he skipped into his workshop with a grin on his face.
__xx__
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
–Albus Dumbledore–
He stood outside the school gate, a rare occurrence as this duty was currently held by Hagrid, but the person coming to visit was someone who rarely ever left their school, let alone the continent.
Plus, the nature of this meeting and the seriousness in his voice forced him to make these unusual arrangements. A tragedy like this deserved his full attention, no matter the location of it.
Usually, the arrival of the Headmaster of the largest wizarding school in the world would be heralded by great celebration, and events attended by the most important people of any country but this required a delicate touch.
Not pompous speeches from people who thought themselves the center of the world. He had already gone ahead and emptied the section of the castle they were going to use for their meeting. No one, not even Minerva, was informed about this. She could be too much of an admirer about him and his mastery in self transfiguration, which was well known throughout the world.
As he waited with his hands behind his back, peering into the darkness in front of him, he felt it before he saw it. A cloud of mist, barely visible against the existing mist, wafted through the forest and coiled in front of him.
He smiled as the Headmaster of Uagadou School of Magic came to Hogwarts for the first time. He smiled as the coil coalesced into the shape of a human before it dissipated, revealing the form of a man in his 40s, yet was just a decade younger than himself. The man's face was set into an aged frown, despite his youthful face.
"Headmaster," His smile widened at the greeting, which he returned in full.
"Headmaster."
He saw the tiniest hint of a smile on the man's face before it gave way to the ever present frown, "Shall we?"
"Yes. Please follow me," He said as he turned around and began walking, smiling as he felt the other Headmaster's attempts to poke and prod at Hogwarts' ancient ward structure, which was utterly unique in its composition. His predecessor and his predecessor's predecessor all mentioned about Hogwarts and how it felt sentient sometimes.
Well, he was the first one to ever attempt communication with the wards, and he was glad to find out that it was true. Ever since then, he had been working on loosening the hold that the Headmaster position had over Hogwarts. Year by year, he worked on setting Hogwarts free, and if things went according to plan, which they rarely did, Hogwarts should be free by the end of his natural lifespan.
Both of them walked in silence, and in the case of Headmaster Jabari Kato, glided over the flooring, with a small amount of magic constantly being pumped near his feet, which likely meant he was turning his feet into mist.
A purely theatrical move, one he could understand given his first time in Hogwarts, and his position here being weaker. Headmaster Kato had come to Hogwarts most likely to ask for help, and he had a hunch why.
Within minutes, they were at his office door, Hogwarts recognising his intent and rearranging the stairs and the hallways to make the shortest path to his office. Yet another feature that would have been lost to time had he not removed some restraints on Hogwarts. He just hoped he was able to protect her until she fully realised.
"Lemon Sherbets." The doors opened and he went in, followed by the Headmaster, who finally had legs now.
Both of them sat as tea began to prepare itself to the side. Meanwhile, Headmaster Kato was looking intently at Fawkes, who returned the eye contact before trilling softly and lying down, seemingly going to sleep.
His eyebrows went into his hair as he realised that Kato had somehow put Fawkes to sleep, something thought normally impossible since Fawkes, like most Phoenix, was simply immune to spells below a certain calibre and even if someone hit them with high powered spells, they would simply begin the process of their Rebirth by Fire instead of sleeping.
Which meant Kato had somehow cast a spell on Fawkes that did not contain ill intent, yet was powerful enough to lull a Phoenix to sleep.
"I have spent a significant portion of my life living with Magical Creatures. Which is why I know a thing or two about them," Kato smiled softly at that, as if remembering his time with Magical Creatures.
Message received.
"So," He began, now that it was firmly established that no one here was on the weaker side, "I am sorry for your loss and know that if there's anything that is within my power that can help you, please tell me."
Kato remained silent for a moment before nodding, "I wish to show you this," Kato flicked his wrist as mist emerged from thin air before forming a small cloud. A moment later, the centre mass of the cloud began shifting, as a colored image formed in front of him, showing a rather familiar figure.
"The Giant Killer," He whispered in recognition, his eyes widening in horror as a thought dawned on him.
"Yes, I read the reports as well. Aside from that moniker and a propensity to use strange magic, you have nothing on him. But he was spotted at the site of the tragedy, and so far, he is the only lead we have that is not either dead or out of our reach."
He sighed in exhaustion. Until now, the Giant Killer was just a figure of interest, known for his aggressive and hard hitting methods and a propensity to go for the killing blow. With his overwhelming prowess, he kept merchants that have been corrupt their entire lives, in line, but now?
After being found somewhere where dozens of children died? The Giant Killer just went up in his list of targets.
He really should have captured him that day, used the artifact given to him much earlier, and instantly captured him, before he even had a chance to counterattack. He had a chance, a split second delay between the Giant Killer realising the futility of the situation and activating his strange and deadly spell, but he hesitated, not knowing that the end result of that spell would be so devastating.
Had it not been for Fawkes, who rescued him at the last moment, he likely would have suffered second degree burns, no matter which defensive spell he used.
"Well?" Kato prompted him, and he sighed, replying.
"I can't give you any more than what the reports say. The Giant Killer has not been spotted since that day and I have been unable to track his location, no matter what magic I use. Divination magic does not work, and we don't have any expert capable of getting past whatever protection he might have against being tracked."
Kato smiled at him, and it was a rather disturbing crooked grin his eyes were subjected to, "You might not have anyone capable of doing that. I do. Bring me to the site of your last battle. I assume it is still burned down?"
"Yes, it is," He confirmed before adding hesitantly, "I don't know how effective that'll be since it's been almost two weeks since the battle."
"Leave that to me, Dumbledore."
"....Okay."
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