Absit Omen RPG
Role-Play Boards => London => Muggle London => Topic started by: Jonas Trevelyan on March 29, 2019, 11:00:45 PM
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Wednesday, December 21
10:14 AM
Outside Madame Tussauds, London
"Oi, Thursby, it's not like I could help the weather, is it?" Jonas asked cheerfully, flashing the reporter a lopsided grin as they ducked under an overhang of a coffee shop. "Besides, don't the Americans have some sort of saying about weather and journalism? 'Neither rain nor sleet nor snow...'" he quoted, pulling off his cap to wring it out. "Something something, 'the news must go on?'"
It was partially his fault, because in his rush to get out the door today with Artie and Gwenna both home for the school holiday, he'd forgotten his umbrella. He'd been two steps outside when he'd realized, but at that point, there was no turning back. He was already running late, and the nice thing about being a magic user was that there were generally charms for that sort of thing.
But there weren't charms that he could generally use in public around Muggles, because even in London people would notice. And so Jonas had spent the 25-minute Tube ride from Hammersmith to Marylebone dripping wet. Although he'd finally dried off by the time he'd reached his destination, once he found Niobe, it was time to plunge into the weather outdoors once again.
He'd only been to Madame Tussauds once or twice -- the last time he'd brought the kids, Gwenna had managed to get them nearly kicked out after attempting to bite Johnny Depp's neck -- but judging by the throngs of people congregating in the wet streets, it seemed to be much more crowded today than he remembered from past visits. There was even a line for tickets, which he'd never seen before. Jonas sighed as he gave his hat one final wring for good measure, and then returned it, still damp, to his head.
"So what do you reckon our best play is?" he asked, looking to Niobe. "Just walk up, pull out our wands, and hope everyone's too busy dodging the rain to notice?"
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Niobe was happy to see Jonas and relieved to take some time away from the Gamp case. (What a tipping mess that was.) It had been too long since she'd caught up with Jonas, but as usual they picked up where they left off. And even better, this time Niobe wasn't needling him into giving up information he'd rather not. This honestly felt more like the old days when he was his own P.I.
"The news must go on," she laughed. "I think that's the post office, Jone, but could be more like Cuffe drunk at a work party. "
Knowing it was to be a muggly tourist spot where they'd be nosing around, Niobe had come in an olive green pea coat over a hooded sweatshirt. Tamed her witchy fashion choices down a touch. But more to Jonas's question about how they were going to keep the secret in the throngs, she produced two collapsible umbrellas with the tags still on.
"Alohomora," he grinned, well pleased with herself. "Look."
She turned down a flap of the umbrella's bundled up canopy. They weathered grey of her teak wand lay snuggly against the umbrella handle. "Who's going to think twice about a pretty couple like us waggling brollies on a rainy day?"
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Niobe was a saint. Jonas flashed the witch an appreciative smile, clearly delighted with her creative approach.
"Brilliant," he said admiringly. "I'm well put to shame. Look at me, all fallen out of practice while I've been hiding behind the ivory walls of the Ministry. Reckon it's a good thing that one of us still has our street smarts about us, innit?"
He took the second collapsible umbrella from her, taking a moment to fit his own cedar wand into place. It wouldn't really be the most elegant parcel if they needed to do any complicated wandwork, but it would certainly keep them from getting too many strange looks. Besides, he wasn't really expecting to find very much here.
"So," he said, still staying back under the awning as he turned toward the wax museum again. They might as well get their plan together first before venturing out into the rain, convenient umbrellas or not. "According to Bagnold, someone from the Werewolf Capture Unit spotted a figure in baggy robes stowing some sort of large, wriggling bag in the outside wall of Madame Tussauds on Saturday night. They think it was some sort of hidden magical compartment, although for all we know, it could just be something like a Muggle breaker box." Aside from Charlie Harris, the WCU members were not exactly known for their Muggle savviness.
He glanced at Niobe, arching an eyebrow. "So we stroll over and use our clever brollies to take a look, and on the very slim chance that we happen to find anything interesting, you get a Ministry quote on record for the story, yeah?"
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"Sounds like a plan," Niobe said with an excited lift in her shoulders. A little knot formed in her stomach, though, at the mention of a wriggling bag. She had faced a live rampaging Runespoor twice - once with Jonas at the Daily Prophet, and in Diagon Alley where the beast had taken her lucky finger. She had the vaguest flash of a headline 'Mayhem at Madame Tussauds!' But nope! Not today. They were going to have a peek at what was nothing. A wriggling bag, who could tell that in the dark. And besides, all creatures great and small were known to wiggle.
With that thought pushed away, Niobe boldly spun the umbrella in a circle from the strap on her wrist and caught it again. Clunky but she did feel properly undercover. "Might get me a job on Level Three. Look at us, so stealthy. Shall we, Mr. Trevelyan?"
She slipped her hand under his elbow and crossed when the traffic was clear. "Where'd Bagnold say? Breaker box would be around back."
If she remembered right, a breaker box was some part of the electrical trappings always tucked away out of sight on muggle buildings with nasty warnings pasted on. Bold indeed for someone to be fussing with that.
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"He said something about it being around the side of the museum," Jonas replied with a frown as they approached. They dodged around a scurrying family darting towards the Underground, all adorned in matching yellow rain ponchos.
To be more accurate, Kurby Bagnold hadn't really given him a clear description at all. The report summary that the werewolf hunter had sent over from one of his teammates also hadn't been particularly helpful, and Jonas had been left slightly perplexed as to why he had agreed to look into this at all. Once they got through this mess involving the direwolves, the Auror was determined to sit the entire Werewolf Capture Unit down and give them some lessons in recording detailed observations.
"Be a lot easier if we could snap our fingers and illuminate any hidden compartments, wouldn't it?" Jonas asked cheerfully, matching her pace as they approached the building. "Hmm..."
Specialis Revelio was a favorite in the Auror office, but it was also visible to anyone else within range, and he wasn't sure how obvious the effects would be to the Muggles passing by. The Evidence-Revealing Charm was similarly a little flashy and wouldn't be of much use for passive spells.
There was, however, another option.
"Here's one I learned from a mate," Jonas informed the reporter quietly, flashing her a crooked grin. Adjusting his grip on his umbrella, he stopped at the edge of the pavement, facing the building, and murmured, "Goleya."
He'd learned the Aramaic spell from Raizel Cohen and Adon Eleor. Unlike Specialis Revelio, the effects were only visible to the caster. It caused magical remnants to glow faintly, giving hints of active enchantments and previous spells. It might not help them find a compartment that had been hidden via more mundane methods, and he wasn't very good at interpreting the different colors, but at least it might be a start.
Jonas paused, squinting through the rain at the side of the wax museum.
"There...might be something there?" he asked, pointing at a spot on the wall several meters back from the street. "I'm not sure. I thought I saw something glistening when I moved my head, but it seems darker than I've seen with other spells. It doesn't look very big, at least."
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It was odd for Jonas to have such hazy intel. He was always clear on what he had and what he didn't have, even if it wasn't much. So yeah, this was odd. She watched as he cast an invisible spell that had an invisible effect.
"If I didn't know better, I'd think this was a trap," she said with a spooky shrug. Despite the ominous suggestion, Niobe moved along the wall to where Jonas was pointing, scrutinizing the surface, tracing her fingers along it. She nearly missed it, a smudge, but she moved back to it.
"Look there," she said and held out her finger. It was covered in a dark powder. She rubbed her finger and thumb together. "It's like charcoal."
She looked back to the wall. "Something's drawn on here."
Niobe didn't sound too excited - someone drawing on buildings, stop the presses - but perhaps ... "Try that spell again?"
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"If I didn't know better, I'd think this was a trap."
Jonas very nearly shot the journalist a dry smile before he remembered himself. The Ministry was keeping the events of the last full moon tightly guarded because of Tawse's involvement. Some information had been disseminated to the Prophet, but the article had only generally mentioned that there had been a werewolf attack at the zoo. Jonas wasn't sure that he agreed with the embargo on passing information on to the press, especially when there was a question of public safety, but for now, he had grudgingly agreed to go along with it.
Instead, he squinted at the area of the wall that Niobe had indicated. There was, indeed, the faintest of glows -- perhaps the remains of a spell from several days before.
"Looks like it might be some kind of rune, yeah?" He sketched the shape in the air in front of him with his finger. Runic magic was far from his speciality, but he knew that there were different glyphs used to conceal and hide things. This one certainly seemed like it might fit the bill, and if it was glowing under Goleya, then it seemed likely that it was magical and not simply Muggle graffiti.
"You reckon there could be some sort of hidden chamber there?" he asked, arching a brow as he glanced at Niobe. "Don't think it's as easy as just tracing over the rune ourselves, do you?"
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Niobe opened her umbrella and turned to lean against the chipped painted brick on the other side of the markings. She was trying to make it a little less obvious that she and Jonas weren't just staring at a wall, just in case anyone chanced upon them. They were ... casually hanging out. The umbrella open, she pocketed her wand letting the Auror do his magic.
"It does..." she agreed and tipped the umbrella down for a little more cover. The more she looked at the rune, she could see the remains of a broad ring with symbols drawn inside the rim at deliberate intervals.
The reporter shook her head. "Search me, but I want to find out. Here, hold please."
Of course she did. Of course the Daily Prophet reporter with a penchant for risk wanted to try it. She passed off the open umbrella, checked that no one was watching, and took out her wand. There was a little click as the tip of her wand touched brick. She didn't know what to cast, but if the rune itself was enchanted just the contact of a magical core might be enough. She began tracing the circle, her wand scraping in the smeared and faded black ring. Slowly the mark became darker, as if her wand was laying down more black.
The circle traced and getting some kind of magical result, she touched her wand to the first symbol at due north. When she did, all seven runes began to glow. Niobe drew her wand back and the seven runes faded again.
"Well then," she said with a hungry grin at Jonas. "We've got us something, haven't we?"
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The Auror let out a low whistle, the wet and crowds all around them suddenly forgotten at the confirmation of a mystery. He’d mostly expected this so-called lead to turn out to be nothing, a whim that he’d agreed to investigate mostly to keep the peace between departments. But clearly someone magical had hidden something here. That was enough reason to dig a little further.
He cast a look at the crowd, just in case, but no one seemed to be in any way aware of them. At least Niobe’s umbrella disguises were playing their role well. Jonas returned his attention to the plain-looking wall again, fully intrigued.
“What do you think it is?” he asked, forehead creasing as he studied it. “Some sort of combination lock? If we hit them in the right order, does it open? Or is it more like we have to insert the correct key?”
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"Yea, has to be a lock. Looks a titch like the one I set up under my doormat after I broke things off with Cinead Tawse," Niobe confirmed still looking at the marks.
She spared a glance at the Auror. Niobe was an experienced reporter, but she didn't let things slip. Eh, maybe she did it to emphasize why one would need a lock-out rune.
"But what's it locking out?" she wondered quickly. "What did that report say again?"
She looked around with brows furrowed. They weren't near any doors or hatches, nothing else seemed out of place. It was just a stupid wall and over there a stupid bin. She shook her head.
"It's got to summon ... something. Reveal ... But why here? Damn."
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This whole misadventure was really just an excuse to be out in the rain for a lark while maintaining good relations with the Werewolf Capture Unit, but then Niobe dropped the dating equivalent of an atomic bomb. Jonas stopped short, his eyebrows shooting up as he looked hard over at the reporter.
Cinaed Tawse? That was a part of her romantic history that he hadn't known about. It made the date that he'd set her up on with Ed Pratt[1] seem positively normal in comparison.
He shook his head, trying to banish this new bit of information from it. The reporter hadn't told him this so he could grill her about it.
"It, ah..." It took him a moment to reprocess her question. "The report didn't say much. A Werewolf Capture Unit patrol saw someone carrying a big bag with something moving inside it, and they claimed they saw the individual stash it inside this wall." And then, an hour or two later, Bagnold and his crew had found themselves locked in battle with Niobe Thursby's former beau --
No. Jonas pushed the thought away. He wasn't going to ask about it.
"Reckon it could be some kind of drop point, and the WCU just happened to get lucky and spot it?" he asked, frowning at the wall. Around them, the rain was starting to come down harder, beating a steady rhythm against their umbrellas. "It's definitely magical, at least. No Muggle breaker box here."
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"Very helpful."
Niobe didn't miss Jonas's small faltering at her, well, risky admission. Had her life been too quiet lately that she couldn't help stirring up trouble. She had a few words about the WCU; if Aurors were hard to squeeze water from the WCU were worse. She didn't even bother anymore.
"We need a Cursebreaker," she said and stood back to cross her arms. "I might have a connection. I think Foy's worked with someone before. Foy Pilpher." Niobe looked over at him. She expected he'd know who that was. She'd been around Level Two to give some statements about her place getting ransacked, and she was a P.I.[1]
She slid her wand into her sleeve pocket and shrugged. "I really should have paid more attention in Runes."
Niobe was run-out of ideas. Twas a lark, she supposed. But if it turned into anything, she'd have the start of a story.
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"So say we all, innit?" Jonas replied cheerfully.
He didn't particularly like getting stuck on this. They'd come so far, and it seemed reasonable to think that there must be a way to bust their way into the hidden compartment. But Niobe was probably right. For all they knew, there was some kind of protection placed on the hiding place that would backfire if they tried to force their way in, or some magical tripwire that would destroy whatever was tucked away inside if they didn't do this properly. As much as he hated to leave a job half-done, it was far better to return with someone who knew what they were doing.
The only challenge was that Cursebreakers could be a bit hard to come by. Charisma was likely on holiday from Hogwarts, but he didn't really want to introduce her to Niobe, not after the incident in September.[1] The only other Cursebreaker he knew was probably off in the Middle East somewhere, invading tombs and setting dust devils into flight.
He shrugged in the reporter's direction. "If Foy knows a good Cursebreaker, I'd be happy to give him a try," he said agreeably. "We've come this far after all, yeah? Might as well see this all the way through."
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Niobe stood back from the markings on the wall and wished she'd brought a camera. She was just bloody terrible with them and the moment you let on you could manage a camera then that's all you got asked to do. Suddenly you're taking the photos instead of being in them, and getting sent along for the ride rather than driving the bus. Camera or no camera, the wall might as well have been blank for what they'd managed to figure out.
The rain was falling a little heavier now, and Niobe adjusted her umbrella for its proper purpose.
"Yea, should do. I'll toss you an owl when I've got someone."
Niobe wouldn't take for granted that Jonas was speaking about this matter in terms of 'we'; it would be easy for it to just get scooped up into Level Two's files and Niobe wouldn't see something new on it until they got around to it. Maybe it was lucky the WCU couldn't hold a pencil. Niobe could meddle all she wanted under Jonas's friendly watch.
fin