Chapter 5

Published: 1-2-2016

Author's Note: First off I'd like to apologize for the lateness of this chapter as well as stating that this isn't my best. However after reviewing the poll data I've decided to do a timeskip so expect one more 'prequel' chapter followed by Harry going to Diagon Alley to pick up his supplies. I also want to wish everyone a Happy Hanukah, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Years. Also I need reviews, as my other story Death in Halkeginia has generated much more interest than this has. Lastly I'd like to send a shout out to Writer With Bad Grammar T-T whose story Harry Potter the Youngest Prodigy is being edited by yours truly. Give it a read, you never know.

"Well the journey of a thousand miles, begins with taking a single step." Percival sighed. "What do you need to get that thing out of him?"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Bedivere exclaimed, stopping her sister, before she began to last things that were entirely unnecessary and only for her benefit. "We're not even sure that it is a Horcrux, for all we know it could be some partial form of possession. As much as I want to believe that Hadrian is naturally this amazing with a full mindscape and abilities in legilimency, I find it easier to believe that he had some sort of exposure and that's how he gained his skills."

"And if he's all natural?" Percival asked.

"Then that boy's been blessed by Fortuna." Bedivere deadpanned. "I remember the training I had to go through in order to master my skills, and even with my natural empathy to aid in legilimency it was tough."

"We're not here to discuss how hard it was for you to not turn your target's mind to goop, but whether or not we're dealing with the absolute worst form of soul magics." Percival said, diverting the conversation before it escalated to blows. "Now Alia, would you mind testing for it?"

She nodded, grabbing Hadrian and slinging him over her shoulder with practiced ease. "Determining if he's a horcrux or not shouldn't take very long, the problem is on how to extract it from a still living vessel."

"What's wrong with the process you used on the other Horcruxes?" He asked, following after her.

Shaking her head she explained, "With all those methods there was a chance of me destroying the vessel, a slim, but still present chance, now unless you want me to try those method it'll take me some time to figure out how to safely extract." She centered him on a large steel table and began strapping him down with thick leather bands inlaid with silver runes.

"Let's not." Bedivere said. "And what's with the autopsy table?" She got an airy smile in return that irked her. The table, if one could call the metal monstrosity that dozens of runes carved into it. Some of those seals she easily recognized, allowing the table to rise and fall, tilt forwards and back, all while defying gravity as it floated, around. On one end, by Hadrian's feet there was a large sink, the faucet and knobs brushed silver and inscribed with runes that allowed it to conjure fresh, clean, and sterile water.

Touching one of the runes the table tilted 45 degrees, and she maneuvered a large light in front of him.

"I just realized something." Percival said off to the side and examining several of her notebooks and a wall filled with diagrams of the human body. "Where's the rest of the staff? There should've been a hundred or so people here, so why is it that we are the only ones that I'm detecting are alive?"

For a moment Alia froze mid-tinkering, suddenly looking very nervous. She recovered though, and smoothly said, "they're taking a break right now."

"Huh." Percival grunted, picking up a modified gas mask. Moving over he picked up several glass pellets, no larger than a marble, and examined them under his mage sight. It's hollow and enchanted with an expansion charm? He wondered what exactly Alia was experimenting with.

Putting on the gas mask and making sure that it fit snugly, he threw one of the pellets towards the CMO. Her eyes widening comically, she made a mad dash for the marble, diving for it, and catching it a foot before it impacted with the floor. "ARE YOU INSANE?"

He tilted his head, a smug smile hidden behind the mask. "What's with the marble?" Bedivere asked.

Alia shot her an annoyed look. "This is not just a marble! This is the solution to dealing with entrenched enemies. Each of these marbles contain enough aerosolized draught of living death to flood a small building. What's more is that they required a specially concocted antidote, as the standard Wiggenweld Potion will react horribly with it."

"Why don't we have these as standard issue?" Bedivere wondered, her mind already devising a dozen scenarios where these could be used to suppress targets for interrogation.

"I just finished testing them a few hours ago, and was planning on bringing them up during the next staff meeting."

Percival groaned knowing exactly what she had done. "Where are they, and where's the antidote?"

"I have to make it." Alia said, finishing her preparations by drawing a circle around Hadrian to contain any spirits. For good measure she made a second circle out of purified salt and a third with cold iron. "But don't worry, I'll have my colleagues up and about within a month." I think. She thought, refusing to say anything as that would mean getting her personal budget slashed.

"See that you do." Percival said, going over her circle with the intensity of a fine tooth comb, they couldn't afford to have any spirits escaping to wreak havoc upon the world. "So how does one go about detecting whether or not the target is a horcrux?"

"Detection spells normally reveal nothing as the person who creates them normally go to great lengths to hide them. Right, since if anything Hadrian is an accidental Horcrux he lacks any sort of basic defense against detection spells, so it's a simple matter." In rapid succession she fired off dozens of detection spells working her way from the most basic to the more esoteric to finally spells older than some civilizations. All the while a piece of paper and an enchanted pen were hovering closely, scribbling her findings down. When she finally finished she stepped back and snatched the paper out of the air, a frown marring her face. "This is interesting."

She handed the paper off to Percival, she lowered it so that Bedivere could read it as well.

Subject: Hadrian James Potter

Current Physical Ailments: False Ribs R8,R9,R10 Cracked (Healing), True Ribs L1, L2, L3, L4 Cracked (Healing), Malnourishment, Brittle bones (Early Onset Osteoporosis Possible), Bruised kidneys, Multiple abrasions and contusions.

Current Magical Ability: Unhindered.

Detection of Targeted Horcrux: Negative

Error! Error! Error! Unknown Soul magics detected within subject.

Elemental Affinity: Void

Origin: Creation and Disintegration

Natural Talents: Metamorphmagus, Natural Occlumency, Natural Legilimency

"Interesting alright." Bedivere hummed. "Though nothing too out of the ordinary besides this unknown soul magic."

"I think that might actually be residue from being hit by a killing curse." Alia said, moving towards one of her workstations.

"I'm more interested in his dual origin." Percival said. "Such a thing is rare in the world. Disintegration is pretty self-explanatory, but this creation aspect is something I've never seen or heard of before."

"It probably has something to do with his gradation air/conjuration ability." Bedivere explained. "I think Ivaldi have something similar in which he can create perfect unenchanted weapons with little to no cost of power. That ability bypasses all natural laws of rejection making it so that his weapons never naturally degrade unlike the standard conjuration used by powerful witches and wizards. Of course with his affinity being Earth, he's limited to weapons that have to be manually enchanted at a later date."

"Such a simple but powerful and versatile ability." Alia said her eyes never straying from her station. "If his projections aren't subject to degradation and he's not limited to simply weapons, the boy could someday become a one man army."

"Explain." Percival said.

"Simple if you don't limit yourself to standard thinking really. If he gains the ability to project complex constructs he could create entire squadrons of armored suits, from there by infusing them with the elemental void he creates simple void golems to carry out his orders. While they'd be dumb as rocks and unable to carry out complex commands, simply ordering them to go into a building and kill everything inside would be child's play. If he evolves to the point where he can quite literally project them with enchanted weaponry or their suits are actually made of mithril rather than steel he'd be a wizards/witches worst nightmare. Eventually he'd be able to fight S-class monsters alone with his constructs." She theorized. "Furthermore if I had this ability I would strengthen my ability to command multiple golems, and reactivating/deactivating them at will. Then I would plant them as sleeper agents in various cities around the world! With a hidden army in every major cities I'd eventually demand the unconditional surrender of the world and ascend to my position of GOD EMPRESS!" She began cackling madly delusions of grandeur and future conquests playing in her mind.

"This is why you're not allowed to practice medicine!" Percival chastised Bedivere. "She wasn't this bad before she tried one of your concoctions!"

"Ahem!" Alia coughed snapping out of it as she regained her 'sanity.' "Besides the ability to create and command void golems his ability to create weapons and other constructs could be considered under the category of Anti-Army. If he simply projects thousands of blades then banishes them towards the target nothing would survive the barrage of ensorcelled steel."

"Such an attack, while lacking the pure map changing destruction of one of our Forbidden Curses is much more flexible. Training wise I would focus on weapon imbuements, reinforcement and runes. I would also show him exactly what happens when you inscribe a weapon with a certain property then channel so much power through it in order to forcibly break or detonate it. It might give him some ideas." Leaving her station, wielding a crystal rod about a foot and half long, she began slowly running it up and down his body.

"What are you doing?" Percival asked.

"Analyzing the residue left from the killing curse. As you know the killing curse does exactly what the name entails, but it also happens to destroy and magic of the target making it impossible to get an accurate reading about the spells arithmetic construction. So far we've discovered that the spell seems to use variations of base 7 raised to a certain power as the main thrust of its power. Because of its use of 7 it manages to punch through all magical barriers but is stopped by solid defenses like marble conjurations or mithril armor. In fact the only shields that I'm sure would be capable of blocking a killing curse would be a runic shield powered by a leyline, and possibly a fully powered Aegis."

"Of course the Aegis is only theoretical as I haven't found a recruit willing to hold it whilst I repeatedly throw AKs there way."

"It probably has to do with the fact that you die if you get hit." Bedivere deadpanned.

"Ummm. No. I just haven't found someone strong enough to maintain Aegis for any reasonable length of time. If I find someone then there cooperation is already ensured."

"How?" Percival asked. She shot him a look that either said, 'Do you really want to know?' or 'Do you really think I'm stupid enough to tell you my plans so that you can make contingencies.' "Never mind." He sighed.

"Anyways what's prognosis Doc?"

She bit her lip, looking a bit sheepish, a complete 180 from her normally boisterous and arrogant attitude. "I don't know. I've never seen a case like this and there's no records of it ever happening before. The physical injuries he sustained will be easy enough to heal and they'll clear up by tomorrow after some potions and spells. What worries me is that unknown soul magic, I have no idea how it might effect him. He could be perfectly fine, or keel over in a minute."

Damn. Percival thought, rubbing his temples. "So what do we do?"

"I guess leaving him to me for extended study followed by a thorough vivisection isn't on the table."

"Wasn't even an option." Bedivere said.

"Then the next best thing is for me to continually monitor him in order to catch anything as soon as possible."

"You're going to leave your lab?" "You're going out in the sun?" Percival and Bedivere exclaimed in surprise.

She glared at them both, "Before I was the CMO I was a field agent remember. And what the hell do you think I am? A vampire?"

"You certainly could pass for one with your pale, sickly complexion, the dark bags under your eyes and ruby lips. Not to mention the last time you stepped out in the light you immediately went back inside, swore vengeance against the sun and then began devising ways to plunge the world into eternal darkness."

She ran a hand down her face. "One I am not a vampire, I am naturally pale and a few potions will easily fix my sickly complexion. You'd look like this too if you've been awake for 5 days straight with nothing but coffee and pepper-up for company. Secondly, that time you dragged me out in the light was also the day after we both became Inquisitors and I was hung over."

"Please as if I'd ever look like you do know." Bedivere arrogantly said, throwing her silver hair over her shoulder.

"We can't all be veela." She replied woodenly. "Though now I'm regretting not experimenting more on you when we were children and you were slower than I was."

"Ladies, please." Percival said raising his hand, silencing any retorts Bedivere may have planned. "I'm sorry I forgot you were once a field agent, but in my defense with the amount of Agents that we have constantly being updated my mind sometimes slips."

"May I suggest a wit sharpening potion?" Alia asked. "Things like this could've been treated early on if you had actually come in for your check-ups."

"So you could poke, prod, and medicate me like you just did to Hadrian? No thanks." He grumbled. "By the way, should we be waking him up now?"

"I think so. He's probably going to be pretty pissed that you hit him with the magical equivalent of a taser." Bedivere mused.

"Woooo." Alia mocked. "Like a 4 year old is scary. What's he going to do kick me in the shin while crying?"

"More like conjure a knife and stab you a few times." Percival said remembering the daggers that pierced him the day before.

"In his defense, he thought you were his abusive uncle ready to inflict harm upon him once more. And you would've been fine even if I did nothing to help you."

"He lacks that killer instinct right now." Alia said. "Besides it's not like he could do enough damage that I wouldn't eventually be able to heal."

"He'll eventually need that instinct, especially in Inquisitoria. On three?" Aiming her finger at Hadrian's torso, Alia joined her at her side and aimed towards his face. "1...2...3...Surge!" "Surge!"

The two called out, as a more powerful form of the standard reenervate shot from their outstretched fingers, slamming into him. Current shot through his body, as his adrenal glands shot into overdrive dumping a large amount of epinephrine into his system. He woke up instantaneously screaming bloody murder. "What the bloody hell just hit me?"

"Surge spell. It's a combat revitalizer that helps rouse fallen comrades and gets them back into the fight quickly. A standard reenervate wouldn't have cut it after Alia tased you."

"She tased me?" He asked, closing his mouth, for some reason he couldn't keep it close. "What's that mean?"

"It means she shot a small lightning spell into you that knocked you out." Percival said, remembering the boy had limited exposure to Mundanes and their weapons. Pulling out a handkerchief he handed it to the boy. "You're drooling a bit."

Taking the white linen cloth and cleaning himself. "Is this normal?" His tongue felt funny as well.

"Well to be perfectly honest, we normally don't care when we slap these on people. After they wake up interrogation normally begins and your comfort isn't really a priority. But I'm happy to say that I haven't seen anyone suffer from any major long-term side-effects." Bedivere said, discounting the occasional twitch as nothing more than a physical quirk of their. Holding one out, she handed it over to Hadrian to inspect.

"Hmmm. Interesting." He said, turning the paper over repeatedly. "Are these more of your runes? Or are these something else?"

"It's an Eastern script, the exact nature I'm not too sure of since it's not my specialty." Bedivere explained.

"How do I activate it?"

"Well with most of these you need to affix it to a target while channeling a bit of magic into it. Then once that's done you say Order to activate the effect. These talismans are written spells, traps if you would prefer, capable of being unleashed by even the simplest novice." Percival said.

He nodded to himself thoughtfully, and in the blink of an eye disappeared. The next thing they heard was him screaming out, "Order!" The talisman firmly attached to the back of Alia's labcoat.

Instead of falling down and yelping in pain, a dull thud was heard as something hit the ground. Kicking it none too gently he yipped in pain, clutching his foot. In place of the CMO was a large log with a smiley face drawn into it, the labcoat firmly attached to it.

"What-"

"the-"

"Hell-?"

The three of them asked, tilting their head a bit to the side as they looked at the log. "Why is there a log in place of her?" Percival asked, feeling a headache coming on.

"I don't know." Bedivere said slowly. "And before you ask no this isn't an Inquisitoria thing."

"Clearly she's been inhaling too many potion fumes." Harry said.

"Nin-nin-nin." They heard, and looked up towards the ceiling. There suspended 30 feet into the air was Alia her feet firmly attached to the ceiling. "Do not question the almighty log." She informed.

"Serious question. Are there any normal people in this Organization? Cause you three aren't exactly what I'd call poster material."

"Normal is overrated." Alia said, continuing to give gravity the finger as she walked across the ceiling to a wall which she then proceeded to walk down. "Nice try kid, but you're 50 years too early to hit me with that."

"Stop!" Percival commanded, lightly flaring his aura, still it was strong enough to silence any protest that either side might've had. "Cease this foolishness. Alia, get ready to move out in 10 minutes. Bedivere bite your tongue and I expect our Headquarters to still be standing and in one piece after whatever retaliation you do is complete. Hadrian-" He paused and tiredly wiped a hand down his face. "Please get rid of those knives you have behind your back."

Grinning sheepishly, the blades clattered against the ground, as he discreetly nudged them to the side.

"Now, as Hadrian has no permanent damage and whatever he's suffered physically is healing, I'd like to take a look at you mindscape one more time to determine your mental health. After that depending on the time I'll give you a brief overview of our Organization that way you won't be ignorant in front of the Queen when you meet her."

"The Queen? I thought that Magical Britain was ruled by the Ministry of Magic." Hadrian said.

Percival's head dropped and shook as he felt the headache firmly taking root. "Pureblood Propaganda." He began. "The Ministry doesn't want the people to know that they are nothing more than a member of the cabinet of government and as such are still under the direct command of the Prime Minister. In addition to this there's the Royal position of Court Wizard who acts as the Monarchy's representative. If the Queen were to issue a Royal Decree the Ministry of Magic would have no choice but to obey lest they be called out and branded as traitors to the Crown."

Bedivere snorted and Alia laughed from wherever she was. "Good luck getting them to agree to that. Bagnold's not a bad Minister, but even she won't agree to following the commands of the Muggle Government. Not to mention the interference from Dumbledore nor the blatant corruption that's currently going on. Death Eaters are buying their way out of Azkaban and no one is willing to do anything about it."

"Really how? I mean they were caught in the middle of another pureblood's house dressed in Death Eather regalia." Hadrian said.

"They're claiming that they were under the imperius, and greasing any palms that need to be greased." Bedivere said grimly. "Don't worry though, we know who's bribing who and are creating files on them. By the time we're ready to move those cases will be airtight and the only thing that will be coming to them is a one way trip through the Veil."

"Many of them are also getting reduced sentences as Dumbledore is speaking in favor of them, saying how they can be rehabilitated to once again act in the greater good of the community." Percival spat.

"Still say that you let me capture them. I could always use a few more test subjects, and by the time I'm done with them you wouldn't even be able to get an identity from the blood samples. It wouldn't even be that hard. Just give me the green light and my team and I could extract them without alerting anyone until it's too late." Alia said returning with a large wheeled trunk. "I'm set."

"Ok. Now Hadrian I need you to let me in." Percival said, kneeling in front of the boy, and staring into his eyes. "Legilimens."

Entering his mindscape, the first thing he saw was a wall of swords, their points jutting out ready to pierce any probe that threw themselves against the defenses. Slowly but surely the wall began to fall, but he waited several more moments after the last sword fell so that any residual traps could be dispelled. Then a door appeared, a simple thing, and touching the handle he felt a hooking sensation in the back of his navel.

Gritting his teeth as the portkey swirled him in nauseating circles to his destination, he barely managed to land on his feet.

"Welcome. To my World." Looking up he saw Hadrian seated on a black iron throne in the middle of a barren battlefield. He glanced over the burial mounds, noting the different types of swords and weapons that served as grave markers. The acrid smell that he had come to associate death death with. A small part of him wondered how a boy like Hadrian had managed to recreate the smell so well, but it was smothered as he searched for any of the more common signs of mental damage. If there were any cracks or blurriness in the boy's mind he would help fix them, but to his astonishment there were none. Rather than be amazed he was instantly wary, something wasn't right in the boy's mind.

Going to one of the nearest swords he pulled it free from the mound, unaware of the small smirk that Hadrian's avatar was wearing. The sharp shock was his first warning, and it was only due to instincts and reflexes honed over decades of conflict that he managed to release his grip on the handle. Waves of pain and anger, grief and humiliation shot through his mind, forcing him to clamp down on his own barriers. What was one second in the real world was ages in the mind, but fortunately for him he only got a taste of the memory.

Forcibly ejected from Hadrian's mind he sank to a knee, his breathing labored. "I'm fine." He groaned, waving Bedivere's help away. "Just not as spry as I used to be."

"What happened?" She asked, conjuring a small cup and filling it with water.

"His mind. It isn't like other children who went through trauma. There are none of the tell tale signs of child abuse. He has no fear, no anxiety, his mind has sealed off all those memories. When I tried to access the memory I was almost overwhelmed. Seeing it makes me really regret not laying a worse curse on those Dursleys."

"So what do we do? It can't exactly be healthy to have parts of your mind sealed off." Bedivere asked.

"This is beyond you and me. Neither one of us trained to deal with mental trauma."

"Selene?" Alia asked, shivering.

"Selene." Percival nodded, before placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry about it right now Hadrian, Selene's a professional who's helped sort out hundreds of people. The good thing is that you're not the host of a soul parasite, and won't have it affect your emotions."

"Bad news is your cracked worse than a dropped egged." Alia sing-songed. "Don't worry though normalcy is overrated. In fact it's because of an alien common sense that I've made my greatest creations."

"Being compared to you doesn't exactly fill me with confidence." He snarked, causing Bedivere to laugh. She pouted, as Percival mumbled about annoying children.

"So now that Hadrian's physical is done, the physical damage is mending and the mental trauma is best left to professionals, what's next?"

"Now we give him a brief overview of the Order, from our founding to current times, touching upon key events. Then a good meal and finally we present him to the Queen where he will need to make a choice." Percival said.

"What choice?" Hadrian asked.

"Whether you want to join us or not. We rescued you from your relatives' house not only out of a desire to induct you but also because we wouldn't allow a child to be harmed. Ultimately you can choose to join with us and work to right the evils of the world or you can turn us down and go about your own."

"It's not really a choice is it?" Hadrian countered. "I mean I have no money, no paperwork, and no education.

"Well when you put it like that, yeah." Percival said, looking at his watch. "You said that the compression is 24:1, right?"

"Yup, it's as compressed as I could get it and I didn't want to find out what happens when your trigger a compression field within another compression field. Right now 24 hours passes for every 1 hour of real time, which means that instead of 8,760 hours a year we have 210,240 except for leap years."

"I've never heard of magic being able to compress time like that. The only magics I know of that can affect time are time-turners and at maximum you can travel 5 hours back without seriously harming the user or time itself."

"Let's just say that our Order and Magic have a very good relationship and that we know things that completely disregard some of those so called laws." Bedivere smiled conspiratorially.

"Anyways let's begin with who we are and what we stand for." Perival said conjuring comfy recliners for them all with a casual wave of his hand. "Sit. This might take a while, however before we begin I ask that you holdall questions until the end. Now who would like to begin?"

"I might as well start." Alia said snapping her fingers drowning out all the light until only a circle around her was illuminated. She pushed up her glasses, her eyes glinting in the near darkness, as a chill set in around them.

"Keep the theatrics to a minimum. This is serious business and should be handled with proper decorum." Percival sighed.

"Shut up. It's called setting the atmosphere." Alia countered, clearing her throat. "The exact date of our founding is unknown, however legends passed down from our historians lead us to believe that the very moment the first magic user came into being, so did the first knight. Of course they weren't called that back then. First written records of the Order appeared during the time of Ancient Mesopotamia, specifically around the time of Gilgamesh."

"From there a part of us moved to Ancient Egypt to Ancient Israel to the Empires of Greece and then to Rome. Over and over groups of us have moved on with the founding of every great civilization. At least in the Western World. One of the greatest mysteries of our Order is how we seemed to be around the world all at the same time while having no knowledge of each other. The first contact that our Western Divisions had with our Eastern Brethren happened during the Roman Empire, and let me tell you that was the surprise of the century."

"Same thing happened when we met our counterparts in Africa, and the Americas. There were many cultural and procedural differences between our different factions, and at one point East and West ended up trading blows with each other. However neither side was able to kill the other."

Alia paused, seeing the disbelief on his face. "I mean that. No matter what the two sides did neither side was able to even so much as bruise the other. It was as if some external force was preventing us from harming each other. Funnily enough this lead to one of our most common sayings, "Magic guides my hand."

"It was the belief of the two Leaders that Magic itself was preventing us from doing direct harm to one another, and so East and West stayed separated for hundreds of years, though they maintained close ties with one another. It wasn't until the early 1900s that both sides joined together as one, thus uniting our Order under one leader."

"Let's focus on Britain, Alia. He doesn't need to know about the world yet." Percival said.

"I'll take over." Bedivere interjected. "The first time our Order came to these Isles was in 43 AD which marked the beginning of the Roman Invasions. After pushing the natives back and establishing what would be known as Hadrian's Wall, our own troops began marching deeper and deeper into Britain to make contact with the local shamans. For the most part agreements were made with tribes who pledged to support us and for us to support them. Several times our emissaries were ambushed and we were forced to take a hard stance against these marauding tribes. When Rome began declining the vast majority of the Order's forces went back to Italy to stop the power of the Empire from falling into the hands of Magic users, while those that stayed behind in Britain intermarried with the tribes. Even though their strength was reduced the Order still maintained a powerful presence in the Isles, and was key in the founding of Camelot as well as the precursor to the Arthurian Knights."

"The arrival of Merlin marked the turning point in the British Chapter's history, as we came out into the open about the existence of magic. For a time Mundane and Magical lived in peace, the peace enforced by the mail backed gauntlet of the Order who prevented any Dark Lord's and Ladies from gaining power, and the Arthurian Knights who protected the common people. Swords such as Excalibur, Galatine, Arondight, Secace, and Clarent were gifts from the Order to the Arthurian Knights. We in return normally gained second and third born sons of nobles who were destined for uneventful lives and were unlikely to inherit much, as well as the Isle of Avalon where we built our Fortress."

"It was at this time that a prophet came to the Order and we got our first clue to why we existed. She had been in a deep trance when she had been told to make her way to our Fortress and deliver this message. 'They shall be my finest warriors; those who devote themselves to my will. Like Prometheus I shall mould them from clay, and in spellfire harden them. Will of iron, body of steel. Clad in stoutest earth they shall be armed with the mightiest of weapons. Girded by my might they shall be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness shall blight them. They, instruments of my will shall know not defeat. The Aegis to break Light and Dark, immortal judges and defenders of my people. Abandon your fears, and embrace my gift.'" Percival finished.

"So what's the mission of the Order?" Hadrian interrupted, his voice shattering the illusion around them and returning the light to the room.

"Oh darn." Alia pouted, shooting him a glare. "You were supposed to hold all questions until the end."

"I think it's important for him to know about what we do before we explain why we want him." Bedivere said. "You know no secrets and all that."

Percival and Alia turned to her with deadpanned looks. "No secrets? Really, this coming from you?"

Bedivere shrugged, before answering Hadrian. "The Order has been protecting magic and users since Babylon. Our job is to stop them from unleashing the apocalypse with their experiments and also to prevent Mundanes from declaring war and killing all Magicals. That's what we do in simplest terms, but our methods vary. Secondary objectives include preventing Dark Lord's and Ladies from gaining complete control of the world, the protection of all sentient magicals regardless of race, and more recently aiding Mundane governments in controlling the Magical Populations if they get out of hand."

"Like the Ministry?" Harry asked.

"Yes. When we said we were taking you to see the Queen of England, it's to deal with the Ministry of Magic and how they're failing their duties. It would be an understatement to say that she's unhappy. The Prime Minister originally wanted to have us begin an Inquisition right away but the Queen has decided to give them an ultimatum of 6 years to shape up and fix their problems before she forcibly cleans house."

"I think that's enough history for now." Bedivere said, conjuring a set of glasses and pulling out her flask. Filling three with water, she filled the fourth with a crimson liquid and handed it to Alia. "He'll have a chance to get the full history sometime in the future."

"Is this supposed to be a joke?" The CMO asked, a minor twitch developing as she stared at the glass in her hand.

"It's fruit juice." Bedivere answered.

"So it's not blood?"

"No."

"Then drink it."

"I prefer water."

"Alia. Just drink it." Percival commanded, ignoring the look of betrayal and her swearing vengeance. As if he'd be stupid enough to allow her to partake in his medical procedures.

"Are things always like this?" Hadrian asked.

"Unfortunately once you reach a certain rank you tend to have a lot of downtime when compared to those under you. For the three of us of whom 2 who hold the rank of High Inquisitor and myself who oversees operations, paperwork tends to be the most we do. In our free time we train but we can't do that here because the space wasn't made to handle the sort of power we can accidentally emit. Hence why we're sitting down and drinking."

"Why don't we just leave?" Hadrian asked.

"Unfortunately we can't." Alia spoke up. "When I designed this room and the temporal spells the minimum time that it can be activated for is 12 hours."

"So we'll leave tomorrow?"

She shook her head sheepishly. "12 hours in real time, so get comfy."

"You mean we're stuck in here for 12 days?" He exclaimed.

"Yup, it's a perfect time for us to get to know one another better." Bedivere grinned.

At that moment both Percival and Hadrian felt a headache coming on as they stared in disbelief at the bubbly blonde.