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"Quinn."
"Ivy."
A silence fell in the room with only the two in it. This was the first time the two talked or even met after their last contact in the Architect's vault.
"I got my results today," said Quinn, leaning against a display case in the middle of the room. "Did you get your OWL results?"
Ivy nodded, "We got them in the morning."
"How did you do?"
"Nine Outstandings and two Exceeds Expectations."
"Wow! Congratulations on finally becoming a NEWT student. That's one more OWL than I got," said Quinn. "Where did you get double-E subjects?"
"History of Magic and Arithmancy," Ivy said with a sigh.
"Ah, now that I remember, you're better at practical than theory, aren't you," said Quinn, causing Ivy to look at him with a glimmer in her eyes, "well, those nine fat-Os are going to pull up the Arithmany double-E, and History of Magic isn't really considered if you aren't going in a historical research subject. Even then, no one's going to complain seeing at double-E. Except for Professor Snape — he doesn't take anything less than Outstanding for his NEWT class."
"What about you? How did you do in your OWLs last year?" she asked.
"I got ten Outstandings. Unlike you, I only took ten subjects — no Muggle Studies and Divination for me."
"Hermione got eleven Os."
"Oh my, now that's an achievement worth bragging. If she only stuck with Divination, she would have got the entire dozen."
"How did she do?" asked Ivy.
Quinn's eye twitched. Here he avoided going to a certain topic area, and she just pulled the conversation dangerously close to it.
".. . I haven't met Daphne today," he said.
A half-smile of satisfaction appeared on Ivy's face. Quinn knew about her grades than Daphne's — now that was a small victory that she liked very much.
Quinn saw the smile and could practically read her mind off the expression. Did this girl have no tact or subtlety? He internally sighed — this was Ivy Potter; she did things head-on.
He decided to change the subject, "I heard your father was there at the carnival attack, how's he? I hope he didn't face any unfortunate mishaps."
"He's fine, thank you for asking. Thankfully, he didn't get injured," said Ivy, her voice losing its power as her gaze flitted around the room, looking anywhere but at him.
"I see. I'm glad that he's fine," said Quinn, berating himself for breaching an uncomfortable topic. "How's the summer going for you? Having fun after OWLs?"
Ivy sighed, "With Voldemort back.. . mum's a little worried about letting us go out — you know, Boy-Who-Lived and whatnot."
"True-true, so hold up at home, huh. How're your parents about wands at home?"
"Not allowed," Ivy said with her lips pinched together.
"Now, that's truly unfortunate," said Quinn. "I would've gone mad if I was not allowed magic while isolated in my home."
After that, both moved out of the backroom when they heard Lily call out from Ivy. They entered the front area of the store, which was still bustling with people (mostly children moving around to browse the stunning variety of products.)
"Yes, mum?" said Ivy.
"Ivy, there you are," said Lily, heaving a sigh of relief. "Where were you? I was looking for you!"
"I was in the backroom. You could've asked Harry; he would've told you."
"I couldn't reach your brother; it was too crowdy and loud, so I couldn't even call out to him," said Lily before her eye caught Quinn standing behind her daughter. "Quinn, what a surprise, how're you dear? Congratulations on the ten crowned Outstandings; Professor Flitwick was beside himself when he bragged about the results to us."
"Thank you, professor," said Quinn with a polite smile.
"You got ten crowns?!" said Ivy with her mouth slack — she had only got one crown for Transfiguration.
"He's been getting crowns on all his subjects for the past six years, dear," Lily revealed, smiling at her daughter's expression. "Another congratulations is in order," she continued turning back to Quinn.
There was more?! Ivy's eyebrows all but trying to disappear into her hairline.
"It wasn't actually a question, but congratulations for becoming the Headboy," said Lily smiling. "It was a unanimous decision; all Professor voted for you — well, Mr. Firenze abstained from voting as he didn't feel like he knew any of the Prefects well enough to vote."
Ivy's surprise melted away — it really wasn't a question. But she did give an impressed nod to Quinn for the unanimous decision.
"Thank you, professor. I'm honored with the trust that all of the faculty has shown towards me and will ensure to stand up to the standards," said Quinn with a short bow.
"Now-now, no need to be so formal," said Lily.
"Ivy!" The three turned to see Hermione walking towards them with an older couple following behind her. Hermione raised a small pink pot to show it to Ivy, "Look, what I found. Guaranteed ten-second pimple vanisher — Fred says that it works on everything from boils to blackheads."
Ivy nodded, gently took the pot from Hermione's hand before saying, "Quinn got ten crowned Os."
It took a moment for the brain of the smartest witch of her class to catch up, but when it did, her jaw dropped, "T-Ten c-crowns!"
"Dear me, that's a lot. Hermione got three crowns," said the woman behind Hermione. She had mid-length curly brown hair and big bright brown eyes.
Seeing that Hermoine was busy gaping at Quinn, Lily decided to do the introductions. "Quinn, this is Dr. Mary Granger and Dr. Richard Granger. Hermione's parents." She then turned to the Granger parents, "This is Quinn, a seventh-year at Hogwarts, the school Headboy, and the top student of his class."
"Good afternoon, Dr. and Dr. Granger. Hermione has told me about you," said Quinn.
"May I ask what she said?" asked Richard.
"That you're a Dental Surgeon while Dr. Mary is an Orthodontist," said Quinn.
"So you're also a muggleborn, Quinn. Where do you live?" asked Mary.
"No, ma'am; I come from a household with a long history of magic," said Quinn. "I would be what you call a pureblood."
"Then.. ."
Quinn smiled, "The non-magical is part of the world, and I wish to take whatever this world has to offer me."
Mary and Richard exchanged looks. It was the first time they had seen a Pureblood who actually knew what a dentist meant, much less terms like Dental Surgeon and Orthodontist being thrown out like they were the norm. Their only other experience were the Potters, Weasleys, and, unfortunately, the Malfoys — two out of the three had no idea what the non-magical world was actually like.
"That reminds me," said Quinn, taking out two cards from his pocket, handing them to the Granger parents. "I don't know if you have been approached, but my family runs a modest warding business," the Potter mother-daughter quirked their brows at the word modest coming out Quinn's mouth, "we offer a service to ward non-magical households and deliver a wide range of options that you can choose from."
Richard looked down and the card and did a double-take when he saw a phone number listed on the card. ".. . Your family business use telephones?" he asked in disbelief.
"Yes, we do. You can call that number to have a company representative come to your house and explain to you about our services, and you can also use the same number for customer services. You can also MagiFax or owl your requests, but we prefer MagiFax and calling."
Mary and Richard stared at Quinn, who seemed an oddity to them.
"May I also get a card," said Mama Potter, looking extremely interested in the warding service.
Quinn was more than happy to provide one, but as his hand went back after handing the card, a shrill sound went off in his head. He sucked a shuddered breath as his hand slowly dropped below.
"Quinn?" Ivy said when she saw Quinn's smile drop.
Quinn immediately pulled himself together and faced everyone. "It was lovely to meet all of you today, and I would love to continue to talk, but I have to, unfortunately, leave now."
Without waiting for a response, Quinn pushed his way through the crowd out of the store, disregarding Ivy's calls from inside the store. He ran through the Diagon Alley, ignoring the seedy amulet seller, who shouted at him and entered the same dark corner to which he had apparated into.
He detached his special pockets from his clothes, and immediately after, all of his clothes came undone from their seams, falling down to the floor. Quinn kicked his shoes off and pulled his socks off, leaving him only in his underwear. He stuffed all of his removed clothing into the special pocket and took out a white triangle patch made from stiff cloth, the size of his fist.
He slapped it on his chest, and a blue ripple went through the white patch as it expanded and stretched until Quinn's body was covered in spandex. Another blue surge and the spandex transformed into cargo trousers and a hooded military-style jacket over a skin-tight full-sleeved shirt that covered his head, hiding all of his hair, with black compression pants under the cargo pants.
Quinn stretched his fingers, setting the tactical gloves, and tapped his tactical boots' toe against the ground. He slapped his special pockets on the wall, which ate the pockets under Quinn's command.
He tapped the triangle patch, and a front mask covered his face.
Another tap and the white attire turned to black.
Noir Transformative Gear v2 was operational.
Invisible Vigilante had returned.
And with a pop, he was gone.
- (Scene Break) -
Aegis Warding Solutions, the West subsidiary that handled the warding business. The wards used in Aegis' products came from a comprehensive tome, an amalgamation of runes from multiple different runic languages. There wasn't a single warder hired by Aegis who had been completely able to figure out the wards that they inscribed.
Which was why they didn't know that every time they laid a warding scheme over a building, they left behind a backdoor. A backdoor that only one person knew existed. The person who created the Aegis warding system.
So when the wards over Ossuary, the home of the Bones family, were activated into defense activity, the backdoor with a certain rune code was triggered, sending an alert.
Quinn apparated on the grass and faced a mansion with a forest in the background. His eyes behind the mask frowned at the flickering dome over Ossuary — he could tell that the wards weren't broken through finding a weak point and exploiting it.. . no, the wards were brutally ripped apart with an aggressive force.
He only knew two people in the country capable of doing this, and Quinn knew which one of them was responsible for this.
.. .
Bellatrix Lestrange twirled her wand as she swayed to a hum she sang as she felt the wind caressing her face. She stared at the demolished door of the building through which her master had entered alone.
He had said: 'No one was allowed to enter as he dealt with Amelia Bones.'
His other servants (all lower than her, everyone was lower than her) all thought their master was going to execute the about to be elected-Minister.
But she knew that her beloved master would try to persuade Amelia Bones to join him and pledge her allegiance. She couldn't understand the reason behind her master's decision — maybe it was because she was a pureblood — whatever the reason, she knew that her master was always right.
"Lady Lestrange, should we go inside?"
Bellatrix didn't look back to face the Death Eater she didn't even know the name of. "No need. Master is invincible," her voice turned cold, "and master's orders are absolute; you're not even allowed to think about disobeying them."
"Y-Yes."
Bellatrix hummed in approval at the fear in the voice. Not even his servants were allowed to not fear her master.
She frowned when she felt the anti-apparition around they had set to not allow Bones escape flicker. "Hey, what are you guys doing? The ward is becoming shaky — can't you guys even do one simple job right?"
She had asked her master to bring along people like Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Augustus, who were competent and entirely loyal to him like her, but he refused, saying that he alone was enough and the nameless servants would be enough to cast the ward.
Bellatrix frowned when the ward began flickering more than before, and there was still no answer. She finally turned to face them — a Cruciatus or two were in order; maybe those would be enough to wake them up.
"You—"
The acidic words died in her mouth as she saw the five Death Eater standing in the places they had been before, but.. . all of them were encased in ice.
"What—"
Her words again died in her mouth as she felt something behind. Before her face could even show the change in expression, her magic reached her wand, and a shield manifested behind her.
However, the very next second, she felt the shield break and felt a jolt. She looked down and saw a glowing red sword coming out of her midriff. Bellatrix slowly turned her head and saw a black mask and pitch-black eyes staring at her from behind the mask.
She heard the figure in black click his tongue.
Bellatrix again channeled magic into her wand, but before she could even do half a cast, her wand was stripped out of her hand, and almost simultaneously, another red flash hit her, and the world started to go black. The last thing she saw was the black figure running inside the house, leaving behind a strong gust of wind that almost knocked her back.
".. . Master.. ."
- (Scene Break) -
Amelia Bones and Voldemort stared at each other.
The Dark Lord stood in the middle of the room while the Head of DMLE sat on the floor slumped against a wall.
"Amelia Bones.. . join me," said Voldemort. "You are pure of blood, so join the glorious cause, and you shall not only live past today, you'll gain endless glory as the Minister of Magic under my regime."
"I refuse," said Amelia instantly. "You killed my brother!"
"Edgar Bones, yes, I remember getting the news of his death," said Voldemort nonchalantly, "and his wife died along with, didn't she? Leaving behind a young child. Only if they bowed to me, they would have lived to see their child grow," he looked around, "where's that child?"
Amelia didn't answer and continued to glare. However, inside, she thanked the fates that Susan had gone to visit her friend Hannah.
"Do you not care about her?" asked Voldemort. "If you leave, she would truly be orphaned."
"She'll understand," Amelia spat.
Voldemort looked outside the window and felt the collapsing ward. "It looks like the Aurors are here." He looked back at Amelia, "It's a pity, if you agreed, we would've made this world a better place. But, you have made your choice.. . so today, I'll kill you and dump your body in front of your Aurors, let them see your lifeless body and despair before I wipe them out.
"Be grateful that you died by my noble hands."
He raised his bone wand towards Amelia, who decided to glare at Voldemort to not give him the satisfaction of breaking her spirit.
"Avada Ke—"
The wall to their left exploded into pieces, lifting up a cloud of dust and debris.
Voldemort looked to his side and thought it was an Auror, and then he felt a large amount of magic being coagulated — a sign of being cast. Two dozen ice spears came whistling towards him. Voldemort lazily raised a shield — these ice spears weren't even a threat. But to his surprise, the ice spears poofed into black clouds before they even hit the shield and covered his vision with an opaque haze.
He raised his magic to wipe away the haze but felt something cold. A corrosive spell solely cast to melt his body until nothing left assaulted his shield — this one was a bit of a threat. For a second, Voldemort was surprised that an Auror would cast such a 'vile' and 'dark' spell — he wouldn't have batted an eye if an Auror cast a killing curse at him to save their head, but this was something different — something that was cast to make him suffer.
He was interested to see who this Auror was. He flicked his wand, and the dark curse fizzled away. With a look, Voldemort vanished the haze.
And there stood the Auror.. . or he was expecting to see. Instead, he saw a man dressed in black kneeling by Amelia Bone's side.
Their eyes met for a split second before the man in black and Amelia Bones were both gone with a negligible pop.
Voldemort stayed still for a second. He walked to the window and saw what had happened to his Death Eaters. He saw Bellatrix bleeding out on the grass, but the others drew his attention.
"So that was the Invisible Vigilante.. . interesting."
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Quinn West - MC - Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
Voldemort - Dark Lord - Plans need to be changed.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - I know you guys would've wanted a more direct confrontation, but this was more fitting. Also, like most times, the is going to explanations, talks, and reactions. So look forward for a few things that were missed cos of the action.
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