Quinn pulled the Noir gear off of him in one of the many alleyways that he had ended up memorizing in cases he needed an empty place. . . for situations like the current one.
"That was close."
He hadn't expected the Aurors to spot him and chase him down while they were on the Death Eater transport assignment. So it surprised him to see two Senior Aurors and a Captain Auror on his pursuit.
"I need to figure out a better invisibility spell. . . these ones aren't clearly working under high speeds."
He had thought that the night of the sky would work for him to cover up for the limitations of the spell, but his assumption was faulty— at least, the Aurors were able to spot him. It didn't help when an Auror was actively looking for him.
"Damn, Aurors. Why couldn't they just do their job? Why do they need to follow me— this is all Amelia Bones' fault— why did she have to set up a task force."
It was clear from Shackelbolt's words that the Aurors Office wanted the information they thought he had. They were even willing to strike a deal.
'Though I can't think Rufus Scrimgeour would be willing to strike a deal with a vigilante out of his control.' The new Head of DMLE didn't seem to be a negotiating person. Which meant that Amelia Bones must've really rallied for the task force, thought Quinn.
He stepped out of the alleyway into a partially busy street and began wandering around without a destination in mind. He didn't want to return home just yet with his filled with thoughts swirling with Aurors, Death Eaters, and Invisible Vigilante. So he decided to have a walk to clear up his head.
His thoughts soon wandered to the chase. Quinn wondered if his choice to drop into the town was correct, or should he have continued flying and tried something else.
'It was luck that the alleyway had a manhole cover, or things would've gotten real ugly fast.'
The escape through the manhole cover was a way for him to leave the conflict without violence. It was clear to Quinn that if he hadn't found the manhole cover and escaped using the sewers— a fight would've ensued, and because of his choice, the location would've been a town instead somewhere detached from the general population. There would've been property damage and even a possibility of a non-magical getting implicated and injured.
Quinn didn't want that to happen. He was confident that even with three trained Aurors, who probably had more technical and practical experience than him, he would've come out victorious. He was comfortable in the Invisible Vigilante's fighting style and magical usage— it wasn't an overreach to say that he was more familiar with it than he was with 'Quinn West's' fighting style.
But Quinn preferred to avoid violence and destruction. He wasn't very keen to leave a magical footprint in such a way that would harmful attention to the magical world and take work to cover and fix it up. And Quinn's fight with the three Aurors would've done substantial damage to the town.
'If that happened, the lenient Auror's department could turn their stance.' Which was something Quinn didn't want as it not only made him a prime enemy for the Death Eaters but also a target of capture for the Auror— who would remove the 'handle with care' sticker from the box he was.
"Who knew that being a vigilante, an outlaw, would have to worry about so many things. This job is tougher than I thought it would be."
But, Quinn was sure that now that the Invisible Vigilante would be appearing more and more from now on.
"I wonder. . . how would this shape things up."
For now, he had other work to do.
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- (Scene Break) -
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"He escaped?" said Amelia Bones to four Aurors sitting in the conference room with her. She looked down at the report and expanded, "Escaped through. . . the sewers."
She looked at Rufus Scrimgeour, Kingsley Shackelbolt, James Potter, and Sirus Black.
"How did he manage to escape a Captain Auror and two Senior Auror when they had managed to trap him in an alleyway?"
The Aurors remained silent, with Scrimageour looking at his subordinates, looking for answers.
"He got lucky, ma'am," started Sirius, "if he hadn't found that exit, we would've him a room with us— making him spill all of his secrets."
"That sounds like an excuse, Auror Black. I do not like excuses, you know that, right?"
"Yes, Minister."
Amelia sighed. They had come this close to the Invisible Vigilante, but he had again slipped away. She picked up the report and glanced through it when she found a line that jumped out off the page.
"He can fly?" she looked up at three Aurors who were part of the confrontation. "What does this mean? He wasn't using a broom?"
"He wasn't on a broom; we can say that with certainty," James nodded. "There were many observations that led us to believe that the Invisible Vigilante can fly without the use of a broom. First, Junior Auror Graham reported that he found the Invisible Vigilante standing atop the prisoner cage, visible— there was no broom in his possession."
Sirius picked up from there, "When I spotted him initially, I kept an eye on him, and from the distortions in the magic, I could tell that he wasn't on a broom. It got progressively clearer when we were chasing him that he wasn't using one. Then he was completely exposed when he dropped his disillusionment, and there was no broom anywhere near him."
"Unaided flight?!"
Amelia knew surprise when she felt it. A wizard who could fly without a broom? That was something she didn't think she would listen to today. It was a long established fact that unaided flight wasn't something possible ever in the history of magic.
"No, it wasn't unaided flight," said Shacklebolt. "Yes, he didn't use a broom, but the magic he used wasn't true flight magic. We can confidently say that the Invisible Vigilante is a master in using wind magic. He used wind magic to get rid of the Death Eater—"
"— How many of the Death Eaters were we able to find?" asked Amelia. The report didn't mention what had happened or what was the progress of the Death Eaters that had initiated the attack.
"We are trying to find them. . . it is difficult to find them when they were whipped out by a wind tornado," said Sirius. "If they made it alive, it would be too late to find them, but if they didn't, we will either get to them first, or there will be news in the muggle newspaper."
Amelia massaged her index finger on her temple.
"This will be a problem," she said to Scrimgeour— but her tone was more of asking.
Scrimgeour nodded his cold lion-like eyes looking indifferent, "If we find a dead Death Eater," and from the look of it, he didn't mind finding one, "it would open a case— or multiple— of murder against the Invisible Vigilante. If that happens, the current policy would need to go an overhaul."
"I know, of course, I know," she sighed. Amelia wanted to say that she hoped there would be no dead bodies but couldn't say it because that would show an unfavorable amount of favor for someone whose every appearance was associated with breaking laws.
"What should be our stance on this?" asked Kingsley. "The incident is going to be leaked to the public sooner or later— we can put a gag order on it and stop it for a while, but if it gets out after a wait— the impact is going to be larger than before, and we will have to answer why we hid the matter in the first place."
"Don't do that. Tell your teams not to talk about it, but don't mention that it's official. There will be no official memo on the matter," Scrimgeour fiddled with the ring on his finger. "For now, what we can do is to put the information as sensitive as part of an ongoing investigation."
"That seems to be the best course of action," Amelia agreed.
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- (Scene Break) -
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Rivers Lock sat down in the Malfoy lounge with a drink in his hand, picked from the Malfoy cellars. He let down his shoulders as he relaxed and raised his glass to take a sip, but before the rim could reach his lips, a voice sounded.
"What did you find?"
Rivers hand paused and glanced towards the source and saw Peter Pettigrew sitting on a chair in the corner, covered in darkness.
"I can switch on the lights if you want," asked Rivers.
"You went fact-finding, did you not?" said Pettigrew. "Does the DMLE have anything on the Invisible Vigilate?"
Rivers lifted his glass again and took a sip, savoring it before he finally answered, "They know nothing other than that he can fly."
"We also know that. What else?"
"It seems that some of Auror chased after the Invisible Vigilante; they had some sort of confrontation— the details on that are tight— but the clear thing is that they couldn't capture him. He gave Potter, Black, and Shacklebolt the slip."
Pettigrew showed no emotion, but there was a light in his eyes.
"How many of them have returned?" asked Rivers.
"Half of them."
"What do you think about the other half?"
Peter shrugged, "They're either dead, or they deserted in fear of retaliation from the Lord. The news of Lucius' punishment had an. . . effect—"
Rivers took it from there, "If Lucius Malfoy can't escape the punishment, then what about them. . . . They might have thought running would be a chance to break away."
"Fools," scoffed Pettigrew. "By running away, they have brought upon death upon them. When the Lord returns, he will hunt them down."
"Or they could be dead."
"They could be."
Rivers took a sip and let the silence swirl. "When's the Lord going to return?"
"That. . . only he knows."
"What is he doing."
Pettigrew stared at Rivers with a flat smile, "You could've asked these questions to him rather than trying to get information from me."
"Nothing like that," said Rivers with a similar smile. "I missed the timing to ask the questions, and you're his trusted. . . so you'd know. Am I wrong?"
"Who knows. . . who knows," said Pettigrew, his smile growing more plastic.
"About the Invisible Vigilante. . ." Rivers knew that he wasn't going to get more answers from Pettigrew, so he switched the topic. "Who is he? I have been trying to find his identity, but no one seems to even know the color of his hair."
". . . He's a mystery," said Pettigrew. "The fact that he dared to face the Dark Lord means that he is either confident in his magic to get alive, or he's an idiot. I'm betting on the former."
"How do you think the Lord's going to react to this?"
"He has been neutral about the Invisible Vigilante. . . which I find uncharacteristic for him. He has been a hindrance one too many times. . . I do not know why I haven't seen a single shred of anger or even annoyance. I do not know what he's thinking."
Rivers sipped his drink. Unlike Pettigrew, he had seen something in the Dark Lord's eyes.
Curiosity.
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-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - I wonder a lot
