Quinn walked down the stairs of his briefcase. Ever since Hogwarts, it had become a place where he spent substantial time. After all, the entirety of his research had shifted from the AID workshop and the Room of Requirement to the corridor of rooms present inside the expanded confines of the briefcase.
He stopped in front of a royal blue door with a pearl white owl with intelligent human-like eyes. The owl seemed angry and stared at Quinn with a piercing glare. Thinking of the inspiration behind the door art made a blissful smile bloom on Quinn's face. He opened the door and stepped into the pitch dark room with the open door as the only source of light.
It shined a light on the world on the sole object in the room.
"Wake up," he said.
The white-bearded man in the magical portrait roused from his sleep and cracked open his eyes, narrowing them to adjust to the light. When he looked at Quinn, the blank face turned into one of great anger, so much so that the man's pale skin flushed red.
"You!" thundered Merlin, as if wanting to break out of the photo frame. "Who do you think you are?! I am Merlin, the Grand Sorcerer of the King Author's Court! The premiere Enchanter of the free lands. How dare you imprison me in here? Release me at once or face the wrath of magic and nature's smite!"
Quinn's chuckled.
"What is so amusing," Merlin's voice seemed filled with poison.
"Oh, nothing much," Quinn clapped his hands for the MLEs in the room lit up. "This makes me cognizant of the fact that the development of magic didn't end with your death. The fact that there's so much more magic that you don't know, but I do— that brings me so much elation."
Portrait magic had much progress after Merlin's death. While he could travel to every portrait in Hogwarts, but if his image was taken out of Hogwarts, Merlin wasn't able to return to the castle. On the other hand, Phineas Black, a Hogwarts headmaster, could travel between his portrait in the headmaster's office and the one in the Grimmauld Palace.
When Quinn found that interesting fact, he exploited it to exact some revenge.
"How was it? Feeling panic, anxiety, and fear after so much time— all those emotions that must've become foreign to you after so much time. You had wide access in Hogwarts— the means to go anywhere, and everywhere you wanted. . . . But here you are, having all that taken away— locked in a room by a person who has a grudge against you, hates you even. . . not knowing if you'd ever see anything other than the blackness of the dark.
How does it feel? I hope it was jolly fun."
Quinn knew he was getting revenge against a portrait— an image of Merlin— and not the real man, but it sated his need for the sweet payback.
Merlin gritted his teeth. The ancient wizard's blue eyes seemed to be burning cold flame. He took a deep breath and retreated to a stoic appearance.
Quinn didn't mind that and conjured a chair in front of the floating portrait.
"I have some questions to ask," said Quinn nonchalantly, as if he couldn't see the anger.
"Why would I answer you?!"
"Do you want to spend the rest of eternity in darkness? If that's the case, I'm happy to give you some privacy."
Merlin seemed that he didn't want anything more than to cast Killing Curse from his eyes.
Seeing that Merlin didn't have anything to speak, Quinn continued, "What can you tell me about spatial magic."
"Spatial magic," Merlin's glare softened only a smidge. "What do you want to know?"
"I'm currently dwelling more into the intricacies of spatial magic. I thought, who better start than the Grand Sorcerer of the King Author's Court! The premiere Enchanter of the free lands. So how about it, Mr. Big Shot, what can your old wise magically created head teach the young naive me— I see thy guidance."
". . . I spent time researching the secrets of spatial magic. While I can't demonstrate them, I can guide you to the correct course— help you not stray from the wrong paths."
"That would be great," smiled Quinn, folding his legs and taking out a small notebook and pen.
"What would I get?" Merlin spoke the second Quinn stopped.
Quinn quirked a brow, "Do you want to spend another indefinite amount of time locked here in this room?"
"I want to be given some freedom. I want you to give me access to a place with many portraits and charm them so I can pass through them."
"You're in no condition to negotiate, portrait."
"But I'm no ordinary portrait, am I, Mr. Quinn West," said Merlin with his eyes full of confidence. "I have a horde of knowledge inside me that you can't extract. . . only I can give them to if I wish to do so."
"You don't know that. I have a way to turn you into something that would answer every question of mine."
"Oh, but you don't. You wouldn't be here talking to me if you had a way to do that. I won't pretend to know you inside out, but I have observed enough to know that if you had a way, you would have already used it. I would "
Quinn sighed and closed the notebook with the pen as a bookmark. "Why couldn't you be more gullible. . . . I'll give you access to one more frame— ask any more than that, and I'll leave you here. How about it."
Merlin nodded, seemingly satisfied.
"Good, then let's continue," said Quinn while thinking, 'I guess the portrait isn't the same as the real thing— he didn't make me specify the place.
"What do you want to learn?"
"Tell me about the Taboo curse. . ."
Then the lecture began.
.
- (Scene Break) -
.
Quinn was at the breakfast table eating his breakfast while reading the newspaper when George came into the room fully dressed and looking ready to leave.
"You're going somewhere?" asked Quinn.
"Germany," said George tersely.
"Oh, a nice business deal?"
"No, a problem."
Quinn quirked his brow but didn't look up from the papers. "What happened? Someone made a mistake?"
"No. But half our partner alliances in Germany suddenly pulled out doing business with us. . . all together yesterday morning."
That made Quinn's both brows shoot up. "What? Half! What happened?"
"The Dark Lord happened."
". . . The Dark Lord?" Quinn dropped everything and solely concentrated on the conversation.
"He went to Germany and swayed the pureblood supremacist to drop business with us; those he wasn't able to get, he threatened," George didn't sound happy.
Quinn knew that there were not many things that would make his grandfather angry— and business going bad was a thing that always made him furious.
"Why would the Dark Lord suddenly attack our business?"
"To get me off his back, of course. Do you know how much work and effort it is going to rebuild our business? I can't bring back our partners; I can't trust them. Finding new ones that could match them would take a great amount of vetting and due diligence, and even then, it is going to be a while before we reach the same revenue benchmarks.
I knew I shouldn't have gone the alliance route and built our own. Why did I expect competence and honor from those bigoted morons?"
"So the Dark Lord thought you'd be hurting his operations here, so decided to disrupt your in another country to occupy your time. . . . What are you going to do?"
"I am going to take care of Germany, of course. I'm not going that mad man ruin my business anymore; he has already done enough of that. When I'm done in Germany, I will pull his operation here Death Eater by Death Eater."
". . . Or, I take over the retaliation against the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters."
George turned his stern eye to Quinn, his eyes narrowing. "Didn't I say we were going to stay away."
"I'll stay away. I'm just going to follow what you'd do and not the bone-breaking you think I'm going for. I will handle matters. . . peacefully— Mahatama Gandhi— non-violence. All that stuff that you love. How about it?"
"I'm not sure—"
"I am an adult, grandfather. I have plenty of experience using favors, I'm charming, and well, I know Legilimency, and as long it is for a just cause, I'm willing to offer my services as Legilimens. And what cause more just than to bring trouble to the Dark Lord. So what you say, shall we show the Dark Lord the might of the Wests."
If George's face was any indication, he wasn't impressed. ". . . I do not like it," he said.
"But you know I'll be good at it."
There was a long silence in which Quinn and George stared at each other, smiling other severe, until George sighed, "You can do it."
"Thank you!"
"But. . ."
"There's always a but," Quinn sighed.
"You'll do things the way I say you do. Meaning that you'll go to the people I send you to do what I want you to do. I'll leave it to you how you want to accomplish my given tasks, but other than that, you'll have no additional input. Agreed?"
"So, I'm going to your execution man."
". . . I wouldn't put it in those words, but yes."
"Alright. . . I agree. Your wish will be my command."
"My commands will be your commands."
"Oh, come on, we had a good thing going on."
George shook his head. He picked up the cup of juice that Polly had packed him and left without saying another word.
"Well, that was great. Now both of me can get involved."
Quinn West in meetings, behind the doors, cracking down on influential people's authority. Invisible Vigilante in the field, behind the mask, breaking down on Death Eater's bones.
"Here, I thought with AID over, I would be free. . . . Wait a minute, what am I, Batman?! No. . . I'm better— Bruce Wayne was a bum. Quinn West's a total badass. Yeah, I'm better. . ."
Polly popped up in the room and asked, "Would Little Master like some sweet cereal?"
"Yes, please."
.
-*-*-*-*-*-
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Quinn West - MC - Two lives on the same track. . . a good thing or bad.
Merlin - Portrait - Teaching for his freedom.
George West - Grandfather - Or Godfather.
FictinOnlyReader - Author - Sorry for the shorter chapter. This chapter just ended this way, and it seems it'll take me some time to adjust to my new living situation. [Written On April 5, 2022.]
