Chapter 17: Becoming Muggle

The children were all but gone, carted away, one by one, on Ron's broom while Derek, Tommy, and Clara kept a careful vigil around Hermione's wavering shield charm. Harry, circling overhead, had offered to replace her once he noticed the charm start to flicker, but she's shaken her head and informed him in short, panting sentences that the spell wasn't one he knew and that she could hold it up a while longer.

The werewolves were mostly out of commission, although with their special resistance to magic and unnatural healing, they continued to recover in spurts – long enough for someone to put them back down again.

Harry scanned the clearing, keeping a close eye on the unconscious or twitching werewolves laid out along the ground, but his eyes were drawn back to the Malone brothers, now that the imminent danger was past. He couldn't figure out the puzzle that they represented. Muggles, but able to fight wizards and werewolves. From every evidence, they were on Harry's side… but they seemed to be part of a larger group that they hadn't told Harry or his friends about (looking back, he suspected that the 'librarian' he'd spoken on the phone with wasn't a librarian at all). Were they some sort of American spies trained to know about the magical world? Except they seemed a strange combination of wholly uninformed and yet unsurprised at the magic they found. Government agents who knew about magic, but didn't usually have anything to do with it?

So far, that was his best guess.

Harry didn't consider himself an expert in anything muggle. Spending the first eleven years in a cupboard and the next six in a very isolated boarding school didn't make for a very world-savvy adult (something he really hadn't thought much about up until this moment). Now he simply felt frustrated since there was a good possibility he'd be able to figure out who the Malones (and their friends) were working for/with – if only he had the right information.

The truly uncomfortable part about the whole thing was that Harry now felt he could trust the Malones' actions, but maybe not their words. Looking back over the last few days with a new perspective, Harry felt fairly confident that Derek and Tommy had used the skills they possessed to help Harry. But they'd also deflected any questions, hidden their abilities, and outright lied if any of them asked a direct question about the situation.

So, what was the likelihood that either Derek or Tommy would confess exactly what was going on once they were safely back to Grimauld Place? He wasn't placing high odds on that.

Frustrating.

A flicker or movement from the vegetation caught Harry's attention and he immediately spun to face it, wand at ready, but relaxed as he saw Ron flying in. The redhead glanced over at him in brief acknowledgement, before heading towards the last two children. Hermione, seeing Ron coming, allowed her shield to drop long enough for him to dart in, levitate one child (dark hair, dark skin, and a soft blue robe). Keeping the child securely aloft, Ron rose far above the reach of any werewolf and darted off again. One more trip and the last child would be safe.

Harry returned to scanning the clearing, making lazy laps on his broom.

And then suddenly he wasn't.

Between one breath and the next, Harry's broom simply died and he gasped as gravity reached up and yanked him down. He gave a short, sharp yelp, twisting in mid-air as he fell, the broom a deadweight in one hand. He nearly clocked himself in the head with its handle, not having enough time to realize he should probably toss it away. But he did have the presence of mind to cast a cushioning spell at the on-rushing ground.

Or he would have, except that even as he rotated his wrist and shouted the Latin, he realized that his wand felt as dead as his broom.

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A/N: Yes, I know this is FOUR YEARS late *hides face in shame* That's what happens when you have kids. Babies suck up all your time and attention. My youngest (and final!) child is now 2 and I do occasionally have a few free moments. At least I'm not getting woken up in the middle of the night now and feeling like a zombie the rest of the time. I have hope to get back into writing, which is why I'm coming back to this now (and why this is so very short). Hopefully I'll actually be able to get some more written and posted in the next few months (don't hold your breath). Thank for anyone who is still reading this!