Fyre place...
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
Hermione watched as the aurors, who seemed to have slightly recovered from Skitter making her irritation at the panicking wizard problem abundantly obvious in a fashion that doubtless would give most of them nightmares for the rest of their lives, got back to dealing with the dead. Director Bones, someone she'd very briefly met at the end of the Triwizard stupidity, spoke for a few seconds to Dumbledore and Skitter, then moved off to have a discussion with her people, presumably telling them how she wanted things dealt with. The poor woman looked like she'd had a very abrupt and unwanted realization about just how dangerous Skitter really was.
If she herself hadn't seen what had happened downstairs, Hermione mused, she'd probably be in much the same state. As it was, she'd half-expected something impressive to happen sooner or later. Minister Fudge was exactly the sort of person to make anyone get rather annoyed with him fairly quickly, in her view. And Skitter, despite how well she was hiding her emotions, was likely somewhat on edge having found herself completely unexpectedly in a situation such as this.
Not that you'd ever know, though, she thought with a certain amount of admiration. The girl probably wasn't any older than she was, but she handled herself with a degree of certainty and competency which was impressive if horrifying.
And how on earth had she taken control of the fiendfyre like that? Everything Hermione thought she knew about magic said it should be impossible, not to mention instantly lethal in a ghastly manner, but it obeyed Skitter like a happy pet. Even as it gave off a feeling of barely leashed malevolence, it also radiated a sort of cheerful viciousness as if it had been waiting for a very long time for someone to play with it.
That didn't make even the slightest bit of sense, but she could feel it from here. Magic did odd things, she was all too well aware of that, but this did seem to be pushing the envelope rather a lot.
Mind you, how did Skitter control all those creatures? Random insects, the doxies, something she was fairly sure was a huge mass of some sort of pixie she'd never seen before, these ones an iridescent purple rather than the blue of the Cornish variant… Lots and lots and lots of spiders, mostly just normal ones as far as she could make out, but quite a few being obviously magical species considering some were glowing in the dark and at least one type was apparently moving from point A to point B without going through the intervening points. She hadn't realized that spiders could apparate…
Probably best not to mention that to Ron if he hadn't noticed. He'd never sleep again.
And the wasps. So many wasps. Where had Skitter even found them inside the MoM?
She looked to the side and saw forty or so centipedes with black carapaces and bright yellow legs zip down the side of the room, then stop dead and fade into the darkness until they vanished. The size of the mandibles was… impressive.
Shuddering a little, Hermione wondered just how many strange creatures the Department of Mysteries had buried away in it, and whether any of them were still down there. Instead of right here with them.
The researchers in the DoM were going to be upset when they ran an inventory, she suspected.
Oh well. Nothing to do with her, and it wasn't as if Skitter was likely to give them back if someone told her to. Having only known her for about an hour, Hermione got the distinct impression that the other girl was somewhat stubborn in some ways, and not at all impressed by wizards. Bearing in mind what had happened since she arrived the brunette couldn't say their savior was actually wrong. And she had certainly saved them, in a very permanent manner. Tom Riddle and all the followers he'd brought here weren't going to be a bother any more, which had perked Harry's mood right up.
She glanced at her friend and saw he was still grinning in a particularly evil manner, which she found both amusing and disturbing. Sirius, who he was talking to at the moment, had a similar expression. By the looks of it seeing Riddle evaporate in a flash of hellfire had really cheered her friend up, and knowing Pettigrew was finally done for had done the same for Sirius.
Hermione could understand that, all things taken into account. She herself was feeling quite a lot better even under the mild terror.
By the looks of it, Dumbledore was not, though. He looked like he'd seen a particularly unwelcome ghost without warning and she could tell he was, admittedly masterfully, hiding severe worry and quite a bit of nervousness as he kept glancing at Skitter, who was watching Madame Bones instruct the aurors. She was certain the other girl was totally aware of this, as she'd worked out very quickly that not only could Skitter control all these creatures, but use their senses as well. That had become obvious when she'd shot with unerring accuracy several of the Death Eaters without being able to see them herself, and confirmed when she'd told them Dumbledore was fighting Voldemort several floors away.
She wondered what range that ability worked over… Was it something fairly local, or could Skitter control and sense through every single insect in all of London? And how could she possibly handle the sheer amount of information that would produce? It was far, far past what a human mind could cope with, and she'd never come across any magic that could augment someone's mental abilities to anything remotely approaching the level such a feat would require. Certainly not without killing the person in question almost instantly and rather messily.
Presumably it was something to do with this 'Parahuman' thing the girl had mentioned. She wondered what that meant and added that to her internal list of research subjects, which had grown enormously in the recent past.
Skitter was fascinating, even more than the fact of her being from another world and another time. Which itself was incredible.
Hermione had a lot of questions to ask the girl if she got the chance.
Feeling someone move closer to her, she looked to the side to see Luna standing there, her eyes on Skitter too. The other girl turned to her after a few moments and smiled. "I like her," she said quietly.
"She does leave an impression, doesn't she?" Hermione commented just as quietly and somewhat wryly, getting a brief grin out of the petite blonde.
"I've never seen anyone the wrackspurts are scared to get close to," Luna continued after a second or two. Hermione looked at her quizzically, wondering what in Luna-speak that actually meant. Half the time she rather thought the girl was speaking in code, at least a quarter of the remaining time she thought Luna was slightly touched, and the rest of the time she was convinced her friend was playing a subtle and grand prank on the whole world. It could easily be a mix of all of those, of course.
"In fact there aren't any wrackspurts anywhere here," Luna added, peering about with interest. "How odd. But I've never seen so many umgubular slashkilters before." She pointed across the atrium to where some flying things the size of someone's hand, with at least a dozen legs, giant bulbous eyes, and twin stingers were circling. Hermione hadn't noticed them until Luna pointed them out, and stared in amazement. The other girl had mentioned the creature once or twice before, without going into details, and Hermione had always assumed it was as imaginary as so many of her ideas were. But… perhaps she needed to reevaluate that thought? Because those things were very real and looked positively deadly.
"I knew the Department of Mysteries was breeding them for some nefarious reason," Luna went on, smiling happily. "It's probably related to the Rotfang Conspiracy, you know. Daddy will be pleased to see he was right."
Sighing faintly, Hermione shook her head. She loved Luna like a sister sometimes, but other times she was somewhat hard work. Catching sight of the other girl's face out of the corner of her eye she looked quickly to the side. Was that a tiny evil smirk that vanished the moment she turned her head?
Hermione gave Luna a long thoughtful look, which was met by an innocent gaze back.
"Hmm…" she said under her breath.
"Although it's fascinating to learn I was wrong about Minister Fudge having an army of Heliopaths," Luna continued happily. "If he had, they'd have doubtless arrived to battle Skitter's Fyreflies."
"Fireflies?" Hermione echoed.
"No, Fyreflies," Luna corrected. "With a Y. As in Fiendfyre."
Raising an eyebrow, Hermione looked at the other girl. Luna shrugged. "What else would you call that?" She waved a hand at Skitter's back, the world traveler standing a few feet away and watching motionlessly as Madame Bones finished talking to the aurors, who were now levitating the bodies one after another and taking them away.
"What on earth do you mean, Luna?" Hermione queried.
"I think that fiendfyre is made of teeny tiny little things all grouping together," the blonde explained. "I've never seen it before, you know, but there's some right there. If you look very closely it almost looks like a cloud of smoke, which is also made of teeny tiny little things."
Skitter looked around at them, then turned and walked over to stand next to them. "You're very perceptive," she said in that weirdly emotionless voice. "How could you tell?"
"I'm not sure, but I'm right, aren't I?"
"Yes. The fyre is…" Skitter hesitated, apparently searching for the right words. "...not quite alive in the way insects are, but it's much more than not alive like ordinary fire is. It's a vast swarm of incredibly tiny… creatures, I guess? Billions of them here right now, so small you can't see one with your eyes. Almost like atoms, but a little larger. And when they consume something they seem to turn most of what they've burned into more of them. They basically breed really, really fast when they're feeding. Exponentially, like bacteria speeded up massively."
Luna was listening with complete absorption and Hermione was wishing she had a notebook handy, because this was information she was certain no one had the faintest idea about.
"What do they… eat?" Luna asked curiously. "If eat is the right word."
"Everything." Skitter waved a hand in a gesture encompassing the whole world. "I think they particularly like magic, if what I'm feeling is right. They really like it. I get the feeling that using magic on wild fyre would end very badly if you're not careful."
"That's certainly what the books said," Hermione replied, with great interest and ignoring everything else going on in favor of this information. "But they don't say why. If fiendfyre is actually feeding on magic it would explain.. it would explain a lot of things about why it's so hard to control and so destructive. How fascinating." More and more she wanted to sit down and talk to this girl, and she could see Luna felt the exact same thing for slightly different reasons.
"I wonder if it's related to Heliopaths?" Luna mused out loud. "Perhaps it's what they eat? Or what eats them. Who knows what sort of ecosystem there is that we know nothing about? I wonder where they actually come from?"
"I'm not sure, because it's not intelligent in the normal sense of the word," Skitter replied with a shrug. "There's something there but it's not even as smart as a beehive is. Not quite. Perhaps if I had more…" She trailed off thoughtfully and Hermione felt a momentary shiver for some reason. Eventually Skitter shook her head. "I'll have to think about it. But I don't think it comes from here though. When that idiot called it up, whatever he did didn't make it, it summoned it from somewhere else. I felt it."
As Hermione was about to ask another question, Madame Bones turned away from her aurors having watched the last body be removed and headed back towards Dumbledore. Skitter said, "OK, I guess we can get on with it now," without even looking around before she spun and walked over to meet the DMLE director next to Dumbledore. Hermione and Luna exchanged glances, then as one made the same decision and followed quietly.
Both of them wanted to hear what happened next.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Well, then, I believe we should be properly introduced, my dear," Dumbledore said with a bonhomie that was only marred by the way he was eyeing Taylor as if he was trying to work out what she was and whether he should be running. "As you may have gathered, I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, the largest magical school in Europe, and Grand Warlock, among other titles I won't bore you with. This is my good friend Madame Amelia Bones, the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. And standing over there looking rather confused is Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge." He raised his voice slightly. "Cornelius. Do stop looking so lost and join us. I'm sure Miss Skitter means no harm. And she did rid us of the threat presented by Voldemort and his followers, albeit in a rather… brutal… manner."
Taylor watched Fudge shake himself, then apparently find some small amount of courage and wander over, having aimed his wand at himself for a moment. It looked like he'd used some sort of cleaning magic, which was a concept she was still having trouble with, to deal with his slight accident earlier.
How versatile was magic? She'd seen it used to kill, and to do something like a forensic examination, and now used as a substitute for wet wipes. That was a pretty extensive range. If it bore any relationship to fiction, it might be technically capable of nearly anything given a sufficiently intelligent user. She needed to investigate the possibilities, she decided. As long as she was here she might as well ensure to collect anything that could come in handy back home, and knowledge was nicely portable.
Recalling the panic from earlier, she then wondered if wizards came in 'sufficiently intelligent.' If so it seemed plausible it was fairly rare… Much like 'sane Parahuman.' Not all of them were as practical and sensible as she was, after all, she knew full well. A lot of them were just nuts. Maybe that was true for wizards too?
Something to find out. But with luck there were enough practical ones available that they could work out how to get her home again before she had to get inventive.
"Ah…" Fudge looked between Dumbledore and Bones, then at her. "What happened? What was that apparition? Why…" he peered nervously around the room for a moment, flinching as he spotted some of her more interesting new creatures on the ceiling watching them, then hastily averted his eyes. "Why is the atrium so… full… of things? Merlin, I don't even recognize half of them! And that fire thingy? What on earth was that? Has the Department of Mysteries summoned a demon again? We had a devil of a time getting rid of the last one, you recall. It only left when we gave it all the eggs we could lay hands on." He yanked his handkerchief out again and wiped sweat from his forehead.
"I can't face something like that again, Albus. I can still hear the snickering sometimes…"
"Calm yourself, Cornelius, I'm sure Miss Skitter is not a demon." He looked at Taylor and smiled slightly. "You're not, I take it?" He seemed to be marginally relaxing as nothing apocalyptic happened, and Bones was listening intently, watching everyone carefully.
"Not to my knowledge," she replied evenly. "I'm a Parahuman."
"Is that like an Italian?" Fudge asked, looking somewhat baffled. Bones, who was out of his sightline, sighed silently and massaged her forehead while Dumbledore's genial smile slipped slightly.
"Not… as such," Taylor responded after several seconds of gazing incredulously at the man. This guy was their head of state or whatever he was?
They were doomed. No surprise that Riddle character had been trying to take over. The only wonder was that he'd failed. Twice, by the sound of it.
"Oh." Fudge fell silent, still looking baffled, and Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"Be that as it may… we can probably leave the details for later. For now, it might be best if we summarize the events of this somewhat unexpected evening for Madame Bones and the Minister, as the outcome has somewhat spectacularly altered the status quo. Is that acceptable?"
Suppressing a sigh, and knowing that giving them an after-action report or whatever it was that the PRT called this sort of thing back home was probably entirely reasonable from their point of view, Taylor nodded. The sooner the cops got their info the sooner she could talk to this wizard about going home without someone butting in asking annoyingly silly questions. "I have no objection, Mr Dumbledore."
"Just Dumbledore is fine, my dear. Minister? Madame Bones? Is that acceptable to you both as well?"
"Yes," Bones replied immediately. "The emergency is over, so finding out exactly what happened is the next priority." She still seemed more than slightly skittish every time she looked at Taylor, and the Minister was deliberately not looking at her any more than he absolutely had to.
"In that case I suggest that standing around in the Atrium is hardly the most convenient way to proceed," the elderly wizard remarked with a look around. "Shall we reconvene in a more suitable venue? I would suggest the Minister's office as it is large enough for everyone to be comfortable."
"My office? Albus, I hardly think…"
'Yeah, I bet that's true,' Taylor thought with an internal smile. She was almost certain that nearly identical thoughts went through both Dumbledore's and Bones's minds by the expressions that flashed across their faces. The Minister didn't appear to notice.
"Cornelius, calm down. Your office is conveniently close, large, and empty at this time of night," Dumbledore soothed. "It's the logical place for…" he looked around, counting. "...quite a lot of people to gather."
"All of them?" Fudge looked around as well. "In my office? Do we need all of them?"
"I'm sure Amelia and her people will carry out most of the interviewing, but we do need to get an overview of the events of tonight first, don't you agree?"
"I… I suppose so. Yes. You're right, of course." Fudge managed to pull himself together slightly, and drew himself up. "Excellent idea. To my office, so we can get to the bottom of this shocking sequence of events!" He waved his hands at everyone, as if to urge them onwards. "Everyone! We're going to my office. Hurry along now, no time to waste."
Trotting off towards the elevators he waved urgently at the group of people nearest it, which happened to be the half dozen that had been with Dumbledore. They exchanged glances then as one followed, the whole assembly vanishing into the elevator as everyone else watched with bemusement. Moments later the gate slammed closed and the elevator car disappeared into the shaft with a clank.
Silence fell, then after a number of seconds, Taylor turned to the other two. "Is he always like that?" she queried with confusion.
Bones shook her head sadly. "I would dearly like to say no, but I prefer not to lie so blatantly."
"Jesus."
"Indeed." Dumbledore sighed a little. "Cornelius, despite his faults, I believe means well. Deep down."
"Deep, deep, deep down," Bones added dryly. "One would need a powerful lumos to see just how far down."
Dumbledore's beard twitched and his eyes twinkled, but he didn't respond, merely turning to address everyone left. "As our dear Minister has said, let us retire to his office and discuss what occurred tonight when our new friend helped us so masterfully. If you would?" He waved towards the bank of elevators. "The sooner we start, the sooner we can go home to bed."
"If you think I'm sleeping at any point in the near future after what I saw your beard has grown into your brain," Bones muttered, almost too faintly to hear. Taylor, even though her self-induced emotionless state, had trouble not laughing.
"Oh, Miss Skitter?" the old wizard said, turning back to her apologetically. "If you could leave your… multitude… here rather than fill poor Cornelius's office with them, I believe he would be far easier to deal with. And it would most likely make everyone else somewhat less nervous."
"Multitude?" Taylor asked quizzically.
"Yes, all the…" He looked around at the entirely empty atrium, where not a single insect could now be found as Taylor had moved them all back into various nooks and crannies, including ensuring that a sufficient number were already in the walls surrounding the office the Minister was heading for, which of course by far the largest and most luxurious room in the building. "Ah." He swallowed a little dryly, then produced something close to a smile. "How… yes, well, excellent indeed. Very well done. Capital. Shall we be off?"
Slightly too quickly he strode off towards the group getting into the next elevator, Bones following closely and visibly trying not to look up at the ceiling. Taylor grinned to herself, then went after them. Hermione and the blonde girl, Luna, who both seemed probably be the most sane people there, and had been listening quietly while they talked, fell into step beside her. "Hermione Granger," the brunette said, holding out her hand as they walked. Taylor glanced at her, then accepted the hand and shook it.
"Pleased to meet you, Hermione," she replied.
"This is my friend Luna Lovegood." Hermione motioned to the blonde, who smiled at Taylor in a slightly vacant manner that didn't quite hide a remarkably sharp gaze. She suspected the girl was actually a lot smarter than most people realized, but didn't make it obvious. For some reason both of them reminded her of Lisa and she couldn't put her finger on exactly why.
"I like your coat," Luna said brightly. Taylor looked down at her fyre jacket and stroked it.
"So do I," she said with total honesty. The fyre seemed to crackle just that little bit more happily for a moment, and she felt her power settle even more deeply into it.
Coming here might have been an accident, and a pain in the ass in many ways, but at least she'd got some cool toys out of it along with a new friend, she thought with satisfaction. Even if she'd had to defend herself rather more excessively than she was really happy with.
Oh well. What's done is done, and those guys were mostly very well done.
The fyre emitted a happy sensation, making her smile to herself.
As they arrived at the elevator where Hermione and Luna's fellow teens were waiting for them, along with that Sirius guy and his friend with the somewhat stressed look, the others having just left in another elevator, Luna pointed at each person in turn. "That's Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, and his sister Ginny. And this is Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, and Professor Remus Lupin."
"I'm not your professor any more, Luna," Lupin said, smiling slightly, although the smile wavered when he looked at Taylor, who nodded politely to him.
Everyone went into the elevator car, most of them standing as far away from her as they could get although Hermione, Harry, and Luna didn't seem bothered any more by her flaming coat. Remus pressed a button and the gate slammed shut.
As the elevator started moving, Harry turned to her. "Thank you," he said with feeling. "That arsehole has been more trouble than you'd believe, and he killed my parents. I am so happy he's finally dead you have no idea. Finally I can relax."
"No problem," Taylor assured him, wondering what the real story behind all this was. Perhaps she'd find out.
"And Pettigrew being officially seen by all those people, including the Minister… That's going to help Sirius." Harry looked over at his godfather, who was staring at Taylor's coat with a sort of horrified interest.
"Oh?"
"He faked his death and framed Sirius for it, and killed a dozen other people, by blowing up a street," Hermione said. "The Ministry put him in prison without even a trial. No one ever even bothered to interview him. He finally escaped a couple of years ago, but he's still a wanted man with a death sentence hanging over his head."
"Which means that since Pettigrew was alive until about twenty minutes ago and we can prove it in a way the Minister can't ignore this time, because of all the witnesses, we can finally prove Sirius is innocent," Harry added with a lot of emotion in his voice. "He knows Sirius is innocent, because I told him last year, when we first caught Pettigrew. But he denied it due to politics."
"And the interference of Lucius Malfoy," Luna commented.
"That guy I shot?" Taylor asked curiously, recalling the name from the crazy-eyed woman's scream.
"Yes."
"You guys have a lot of problems," she remarked. "Terrorists, corrupt government, crazy people trying to cause trouble… It's just like home, only with magic."
Harry looked at her with confusion, then at Hermione, who shrugged. The elevator stopped before he could say anything with the voice announcing their arrival at the required floor and everyone got out. Taylor started walking towards the office she'd detected, which now had quite a lot of people milling around in it. "How do you know which way to go?" Lupin asked, coming up behind her and sounding cautiously interested.
"I see it," she said. Turning her head slowly to fix him with her gaze, she added, "I see everything."
The man gazed at her for a second or two then nodded a little lamely. "All right, I was just curious," he replied, dropping back a few paces and putting Sirius between them. Taylor felt Lisa would have been proud.
There were so many ways to intimidate people, she was realizing. The simple truth was one of the better ones, oddly enough.
She did see everything. Even now, she had some of her new swarm going through a set of filing cabinets several floors away in what seemed to be a records office, looking for information on Sirius Black. It took a tiny fraction of her attention at best, and she was curious.
The books she was also reading in various places were also very interesting indeed. Magic seemed to have some quite useful applications, as well as a lot of major problems.
Taylor wondered if any of this information would be useful to her. Her power certainly seemed to find the subject one worthy of study, considering how incredibly eager it appeared to be to do whatever she asked of it since she arrived…
As they walked into Fudge's office, she was also reading a book on magical creatures and trying to work out how she'd get giant spiders home with her…
Rachel had her dogs. Taylor wanted a riding spider because she'd just discovered you could get a riding spider.
The fact that wizards didn't ride them was more proof they were a little bit dim on the whole, in her opinion. Some people never took advantage of the cool things that were staring them in the face...
If she herself hadn't seen what had happened downstairs, Hermione mused, she'd probably be in much the same state. As it was, she'd half-expected something impressive to happen sooner or later. Minister Fudge was exactly the sort of person to make anyone get rather annoyed with him fairly quickly, in her view. And Skitter, despite how well she was hiding her emotions, was likely somewhat on edge having found herself completely unexpectedly in a situation such as this.
Not that you'd ever know, though, she thought with a certain amount of admiration. The girl probably wasn't any older than she was, but she handled herself with a degree of certainty and competency which was impressive if horrifying.
And how on earth had she taken control of the fiendfyre like that? Everything Hermione thought she knew about magic said it should be impossible, not to mention instantly lethal in a ghastly manner, but it obeyed Skitter like a happy pet. Even as it gave off a feeling of barely leashed malevolence, it also radiated a sort of cheerful viciousness as if it had been waiting for a very long time for someone to play with it.
That didn't make even the slightest bit of sense, but she could feel it from here. Magic did odd things, she was all too well aware of that, but this did seem to be pushing the envelope rather a lot.
Mind you, how did Skitter control all those creatures? Random insects, the doxies, something she was fairly sure was a huge mass of some sort of pixie she'd never seen before, these ones an iridescent purple rather than the blue of the Cornish variant… Lots and lots and lots of spiders, mostly just normal ones as far as she could make out, but quite a few being obviously magical species considering some were glowing in the dark and at least one type was apparently moving from point A to point B without going through the intervening points. She hadn't realized that spiders could apparate…
Probably best not to mention that to Ron if he hadn't noticed. He'd never sleep again.
And the wasps. So many wasps. Where had Skitter even found them inside the MoM?
She looked to the side and saw forty or so centipedes with black carapaces and bright yellow legs zip down the side of the room, then stop dead and fade into the darkness until they vanished. The size of the mandibles was… impressive.
Shuddering a little, Hermione wondered just how many strange creatures the Department of Mysteries had buried away in it, and whether any of them were still down there. Instead of right here with them.
The researchers in the DoM were going to be upset when they ran an inventory, she suspected.
Oh well. Nothing to do with her, and it wasn't as if Skitter was likely to give them back if someone told her to. Having only known her for about an hour, Hermione got the distinct impression that the other girl was somewhat stubborn in some ways, and not at all impressed by wizards. Bearing in mind what had happened since she arrived the brunette couldn't say their savior was actually wrong. And she had certainly saved them, in a very permanent manner. Tom Riddle and all the followers he'd brought here weren't going to be a bother any more, which had perked Harry's mood right up.
She glanced at her friend and saw he was still grinning in a particularly evil manner, which she found both amusing and disturbing. Sirius, who he was talking to at the moment, had a similar expression. By the looks of it seeing Riddle evaporate in a flash of hellfire had really cheered her friend up, and knowing Pettigrew was finally done for had done the same for Sirius.
Hermione could understand that, all things taken into account. She herself was feeling quite a lot better even under the mild terror.
By the looks of it, Dumbledore was not, though. He looked like he'd seen a particularly unwelcome ghost without warning and she could tell he was, admittedly masterfully, hiding severe worry and quite a bit of nervousness as he kept glancing at Skitter, who was watching Madame Bones instruct the aurors. She was certain the other girl was totally aware of this, as she'd worked out very quickly that not only could Skitter control all these creatures, but use their senses as well. That had become obvious when she'd shot with unerring accuracy several of the Death Eaters without being able to see them herself, and confirmed when she'd told them Dumbledore was fighting Voldemort several floors away.
She wondered what range that ability worked over… Was it something fairly local, or could Skitter control and sense through every single insect in all of London? And how could she possibly handle the sheer amount of information that would produce? It was far, far past what a human mind could cope with, and she'd never come across any magic that could augment someone's mental abilities to anything remotely approaching the level such a feat would require. Certainly not without killing the person in question almost instantly and rather messily.
Presumably it was something to do with this 'Parahuman' thing the girl had mentioned. She wondered what that meant and added that to her internal list of research subjects, which had grown enormously in the recent past.
Skitter was fascinating, even more than the fact of her being from another world and another time. Which itself was incredible.
Hermione had a lot of questions to ask the girl if she got the chance.
Feeling someone move closer to her, she looked to the side to see Luna standing there, her eyes on Skitter too. The other girl turned to her after a few moments and smiled. "I like her," she said quietly.
"She does leave an impression, doesn't she?" Hermione commented just as quietly and somewhat wryly, getting a brief grin out of the petite blonde.
"I've never seen anyone the wrackspurts are scared to get close to," Luna continued after a second or two. Hermione looked at her quizzically, wondering what in Luna-speak that actually meant. Half the time she rather thought the girl was speaking in code, at least a quarter of the remaining time she thought Luna was slightly touched, and the rest of the time she was convinced her friend was playing a subtle and grand prank on the whole world. It could easily be a mix of all of those, of course.
"In fact there aren't any wrackspurts anywhere here," Luna added, peering about with interest. "How odd. But I've never seen so many umgubular slashkilters before." She pointed across the atrium to where some flying things the size of someone's hand, with at least a dozen legs, giant bulbous eyes, and twin stingers were circling. Hermione hadn't noticed them until Luna pointed them out, and stared in amazement. The other girl had mentioned the creature once or twice before, without going into details, and Hermione had always assumed it was as imaginary as so many of her ideas were. But… perhaps she needed to reevaluate that thought? Because those things were very real and looked positively deadly.
"I knew the Department of Mysteries was breeding them for some nefarious reason," Luna went on, smiling happily. "It's probably related to the Rotfang Conspiracy, you know. Daddy will be pleased to see he was right."
Sighing faintly, Hermione shook her head. She loved Luna like a sister sometimes, but other times she was somewhat hard work. Catching sight of the other girl's face out of the corner of her eye she looked quickly to the side. Was that a tiny evil smirk that vanished the moment she turned her head?
Hermione gave Luna a long thoughtful look, which was met by an innocent gaze back.
"Hmm…" she said under her breath.
"Although it's fascinating to learn I was wrong about Minister Fudge having an army of Heliopaths," Luna continued happily. "If he had, they'd have doubtless arrived to battle Skitter's Fyreflies."
"Fireflies?" Hermione echoed.
"No, Fyreflies," Luna corrected. "With a Y. As in Fiendfyre."
Raising an eyebrow, Hermione looked at the other girl. Luna shrugged. "What else would you call that?" She waved a hand at Skitter's back, the world traveler standing a few feet away and watching motionlessly as Madame Bones finished talking to the aurors, who were now levitating the bodies one after another and taking them away.
"What on earth do you mean, Luna?" Hermione queried.
"I think that fiendfyre is made of teeny tiny little things all grouping together," the blonde explained. "I've never seen it before, you know, but there's some right there. If you look very closely it almost looks like a cloud of smoke, which is also made of teeny tiny little things."
Skitter looked around at them, then turned and walked over to stand next to them. "You're very perceptive," she said in that weirdly emotionless voice. "How could you tell?"
"I'm not sure, but I'm right, aren't I?"
"Yes. The fyre is…" Skitter hesitated, apparently searching for the right words. "...not quite alive in the way insects are, but it's much more than not alive like ordinary fire is. It's a vast swarm of incredibly tiny… creatures, I guess? Billions of them here right now, so small you can't see one with your eyes. Almost like atoms, but a little larger. And when they consume something they seem to turn most of what they've burned into more of them. They basically breed really, really fast when they're feeding. Exponentially, like bacteria speeded up massively."
Luna was listening with complete absorption and Hermione was wishing she had a notebook handy, because this was information she was certain no one had the faintest idea about.
"What do they… eat?" Luna asked curiously. "If eat is the right word."
"Everything." Skitter waved a hand in a gesture encompassing the whole world. "I think they particularly like magic, if what I'm feeling is right. They really like it. I get the feeling that using magic on wild fyre would end very badly if you're not careful."
"That's certainly what the books said," Hermione replied, with great interest and ignoring everything else going on in favor of this information. "But they don't say why. If fiendfyre is actually feeding on magic it would explain.. it would explain a lot of things about why it's so hard to control and so destructive. How fascinating." More and more she wanted to sit down and talk to this girl, and she could see Luna felt the exact same thing for slightly different reasons.
"I wonder if it's related to Heliopaths?" Luna mused out loud. "Perhaps it's what they eat? Or what eats them. Who knows what sort of ecosystem there is that we know nothing about? I wonder where they actually come from?"
"I'm not sure, because it's not intelligent in the normal sense of the word," Skitter replied with a shrug. "There's something there but it's not even as smart as a beehive is. Not quite. Perhaps if I had more…" She trailed off thoughtfully and Hermione felt a momentary shiver for some reason. Eventually Skitter shook her head. "I'll have to think about it. But I don't think it comes from here though. When that idiot called it up, whatever he did didn't make it, it summoned it from somewhere else. I felt it."
As Hermione was about to ask another question, Madame Bones turned away from her aurors having watched the last body be removed and headed back towards Dumbledore. Skitter said, "OK, I guess we can get on with it now," without even looking around before she spun and walked over to meet the DMLE director next to Dumbledore. Hermione and Luna exchanged glances, then as one made the same decision and followed quietly.
Both of them wanted to hear what happened next.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Well, then, I believe we should be properly introduced, my dear," Dumbledore said with a bonhomie that was only marred by the way he was eyeing Taylor as if he was trying to work out what she was and whether he should be running. "As you may have gathered, I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, the largest magical school in Europe, and Grand Warlock, among other titles I won't bore you with. This is my good friend Madame Amelia Bones, the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. And standing over there looking rather confused is Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge." He raised his voice slightly. "Cornelius. Do stop looking so lost and join us. I'm sure Miss Skitter means no harm. And she did rid us of the threat presented by Voldemort and his followers, albeit in a rather… brutal… manner."
Taylor watched Fudge shake himself, then apparently find some small amount of courage and wander over, having aimed his wand at himself for a moment. It looked like he'd used some sort of cleaning magic, which was a concept she was still having trouble with, to deal with his slight accident earlier.
How versatile was magic? She'd seen it used to kill, and to do something like a forensic examination, and now used as a substitute for wet wipes. That was a pretty extensive range. If it bore any relationship to fiction, it might be technically capable of nearly anything given a sufficiently intelligent user. She needed to investigate the possibilities, she decided. As long as she was here she might as well ensure to collect anything that could come in handy back home, and knowledge was nicely portable.
Recalling the panic from earlier, she then wondered if wizards came in 'sufficiently intelligent.' If so it seemed plausible it was fairly rare… Much like 'sane Parahuman.' Not all of them were as practical and sensible as she was, after all, she knew full well. A lot of them were just nuts. Maybe that was true for wizards too?
Something to find out. But with luck there were enough practical ones available that they could work out how to get her home again before she had to get inventive.
"Ah…" Fudge looked between Dumbledore and Bones, then at her. "What happened? What was that apparition? Why…" he peered nervously around the room for a moment, flinching as he spotted some of her more interesting new creatures on the ceiling watching them, then hastily averted his eyes. "Why is the atrium so… full… of things? Merlin, I don't even recognize half of them! And that fire thingy? What on earth was that? Has the Department of Mysteries summoned a demon again? We had a devil of a time getting rid of the last one, you recall. It only left when we gave it all the eggs we could lay hands on." He yanked his handkerchief out again and wiped sweat from his forehead.
"I can't face something like that again, Albus. I can still hear the snickering sometimes…"
"Calm yourself, Cornelius, I'm sure Miss Skitter is not a demon." He looked at Taylor and smiled slightly. "You're not, I take it?" He seemed to be marginally relaxing as nothing apocalyptic happened, and Bones was listening intently, watching everyone carefully.
"Not to my knowledge," she replied evenly. "I'm a Parahuman."
"Is that like an Italian?" Fudge asked, looking somewhat baffled. Bones, who was out of his sightline, sighed silently and massaged her forehead while Dumbledore's genial smile slipped slightly.
"Not… as such," Taylor responded after several seconds of gazing incredulously at the man. This guy was their head of state or whatever he was?
They were doomed. No surprise that Riddle character had been trying to take over. The only wonder was that he'd failed. Twice, by the sound of it.
"Oh." Fudge fell silent, still looking baffled, and Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"Be that as it may… we can probably leave the details for later. For now, it might be best if we summarize the events of this somewhat unexpected evening for Madame Bones and the Minister, as the outcome has somewhat spectacularly altered the status quo. Is that acceptable?"
Suppressing a sigh, and knowing that giving them an after-action report or whatever it was that the PRT called this sort of thing back home was probably entirely reasonable from their point of view, Taylor nodded. The sooner the cops got their info the sooner she could talk to this wizard about going home without someone butting in asking annoyingly silly questions. "I have no objection, Mr Dumbledore."
"Just Dumbledore is fine, my dear. Minister? Madame Bones? Is that acceptable to you both as well?"
"Yes," Bones replied immediately. "The emergency is over, so finding out exactly what happened is the next priority." She still seemed more than slightly skittish every time she looked at Taylor, and the Minister was deliberately not looking at her any more than he absolutely had to.
"In that case I suggest that standing around in the Atrium is hardly the most convenient way to proceed," the elderly wizard remarked with a look around. "Shall we reconvene in a more suitable venue? I would suggest the Minister's office as it is large enough for everyone to be comfortable."
"My office? Albus, I hardly think…"
'Yeah, I bet that's true,' Taylor thought with an internal smile. She was almost certain that nearly identical thoughts went through both Dumbledore's and Bones's minds by the expressions that flashed across their faces. The Minister didn't appear to notice.
"Cornelius, calm down. Your office is conveniently close, large, and empty at this time of night," Dumbledore soothed. "It's the logical place for…" he looked around, counting. "...quite a lot of people to gather."
"All of them?" Fudge looked around as well. "In my office? Do we need all of them?"
"I'm sure Amelia and her people will carry out most of the interviewing, but we do need to get an overview of the events of tonight first, don't you agree?"
"I… I suppose so. Yes. You're right, of course." Fudge managed to pull himself together slightly, and drew himself up. "Excellent idea. To my office, so we can get to the bottom of this shocking sequence of events!" He waved his hands at everyone, as if to urge them onwards. "Everyone! We're going to my office. Hurry along now, no time to waste."
Trotting off towards the elevators he waved urgently at the group of people nearest it, which happened to be the half dozen that had been with Dumbledore. They exchanged glances then as one followed, the whole assembly vanishing into the elevator as everyone else watched with bemusement. Moments later the gate slammed closed and the elevator car disappeared into the shaft with a clank.
Silence fell, then after a number of seconds, Taylor turned to the other two. "Is he always like that?" she queried with confusion.
Bones shook her head sadly. "I would dearly like to say no, but I prefer not to lie so blatantly."
"Jesus."
"Indeed." Dumbledore sighed a little. "Cornelius, despite his faults, I believe means well. Deep down."
"Deep, deep, deep down," Bones added dryly. "One would need a powerful lumos to see just how far down."
Dumbledore's beard twitched and his eyes twinkled, but he didn't respond, merely turning to address everyone left. "As our dear Minister has said, let us retire to his office and discuss what occurred tonight when our new friend helped us so masterfully. If you would?" He waved towards the bank of elevators. "The sooner we start, the sooner we can go home to bed."
"If you think I'm sleeping at any point in the near future after what I saw your beard has grown into your brain," Bones muttered, almost too faintly to hear. Taylor, even though her self-induced emotionless state, had trouble not laughing.
"Oh, Miss Skitter?" the old wizard said, turning back to her apologetically. "If you could leave your… multitude… here rather than fill poor Cornelius's office with them, I believe he would be far easier to deal with. And it would most likely make everyone else somewhat less nervous."
"Multitude?" Taylor asked quizzically.
"Yes, all the…" He looked around at the entirely empty atrium, where not a single insect could now be found as Taylor had moved them all back into various nooks and crannies, including ensuring that a sufficient number were already in the walls surrounding the office the Minister was heading for, which of course by far the largest and most luxurious room in the building. "Ah." He swallowed a little dryly, then produced something close to a smile. "How… yes, well, excellent indeed. Very well done. Capital. Shall we be off?"
Slightly too quickly he strode off towards the group getting into the next elevator, Bones following closely and visibly trying not to look up at the ceiling. Taylor grinned to herself, then went after them. Hermione and the blonde girl, Luna, who both seemed probably be the most sane people there, and had been listening quietly while they talked, fell into step beside her. "Hermione Granger," the brunette said, holding out her hand as they walked. Taylor glanced at her, then accepted the hand and shook it.
"Pleased to meet you, Hermione," she replied.
"This is my friend Luna Lovegood." Hermione motioned to the blonde, who smiled at Taylor in a slightly vacant manner that didn't quite hide a remarkably sharp gaze. She suspected the girl was actually a lot smarter than most people realized, but didn't make it obvious. For some reason both of them reminded her of Lisa and she couldn't put her finger on exactly why.
"I like your coat," Luna said brightly. Taylor looked down at her fyre jacket and stroked it.
"So do I," she said with total honesty. The fyre seemed to crackle just that little bit more happily for a moment, and she felt her power settle even more deeply into it.
Coming here might have been an accident, and a pain in the ass in many ways, but at least she'd got some cool toys out of it along with a new friend, she thought with satisfaction. Even if she'd had to defend herself rather more excessively than she was really happy with.
Oh well. What's done is done, and those guys were mostly very well done.
The fyre emitted a happy sensation, making her smile to herself.
As they arrived at the elevator where Hermione and Luna's fellow teens were waiting for them, along with that Sirius guy and his friend with the somewhat stressed look, the others having just left in another elevator, Luna pointed at each person in turn. "That's Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, and his sister Ginny. And this is Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, and Professor Remus Lupin."
"I'm not your professor any more, Luna," Lupin said, smiling slightly, although the smile wavered when he looked at Taylor, who nodded politely to him.
Everyone went into the elevator car, most of them standing as far away from her as they could get although Hermione, Harry, and Luna didn't seem bothered any more by her flaming coat. Remus pressed a button and the gate slammed shut.
As the elevator started moving, Harry turned to her. "Thank you," he said with feeling. "That arsehole has been more trouble than you'd believe, and he killed my parents. I am so happy he's finally dead you have no idea. Finally I can relax."
"No problem," Taylor assured him, wondering what the real story behind all this was. Perhaps she'd find out.
"And Pettigrew being officially seen by all those people, including the Minister… That's going to help Sirius." Harry looked over at his godfather, who was staring at Taylor's coat with a sort of horrified interest.
"Oh?"
"He faked his death and framed Sirius for it, and killed a dozen other people, by blowing up a street," Hermione said. "The Ministry put him in prison without even a trial. No one ever even bothered to interview him. He finally escaped a couple of years ago, but he's still a wanted man with a death sentence hanging over his head."
"Which means that since Pettigrew was alive until about twenty minutes ago and we can prove it in a way the Minister can't ignore this time, because of all the witnesses, we can finally prove Sirius is innocent," Harry added with a lot of emotion in his voice. "He knows Sirius is innocent, because I told him last year, when we first caught Pettigrew. But he denied it due to politics."
"And the interference of Lucius Malfoy," Luna commented.
"That guy I shot?" Taylor asked curiously, recalling the name from the crazy-eyed woman's scream.
"Yes."
"You guys have a lot of problems," she remarked. "Terrorists, corrupt government, crazy people trying to cause trouble… It's just like home, only with magic."
Harry looked at her with confusion, then at Hermione, who shrugged. The elevator stopped before he could say anything with the voice announcing their arrival at the required floor and everyone got out. Taylor started walking towards the office she'd detected, which now had quite a lot of people milling around in it. "How do you know which way to go?" Lupin asked, coming up behind her and sounding cautiously interested.
"I see it," she said. Turning her head slowly to fix him with her gaze, she added, "I see everything."
The man gazed at her for a second or two then nodded a little lamely. "All right, I was just curious," he replied, dropping back a few paces and putting Sirius between them. Taylor felt Lisa would have been proud.
There were so many ways to intimidate people, she was realizing. The simple truth was one of the better ones, oddly enough.
She did see everything. Even now, she had some of her new swarm going through a set of filing cabinets several floors away in what seemed to be a records office, looking for information on Sirius Black. It took a tiny fraction of her attention at best, and she was curious.
The books she was also reading in various places were also very interesting indeed. Magic seemed to have some quite useful applications, as well as a lot of major problems.
Taylor wondered if any of this information would be useful to her. Her power certainly seemed to find the subject one worthy of study, considering how incredibly eager it appeared to be to do whatever she asked of it since she arrived…
As they walked into Fudge's office, she was also reading a book on magical creatures and trying to work out how she'd get giant spiders home with her…
Rachel had her dogs. Taylor wanted a riding spider because she'd just discovered you could get a riding spider.
The fact that wizards didn't ride them was more proof they were a little bit dim on the whole, in her opinion. Some people never took advantage of the cool things that were staring them in the face...
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