[RVS]6 - Covert
Chapter Six
Covert
A woman in Victorian dress stood in an alley that had been empty a second before. Her wand already drawn, she drew a gesture in the air. Muttering under her breath, Minerva cast a spell to mask her magic. From what Mister Brewer had told her, it was easily possible that Miss Shimmer had some way to detect magic.
If she did, a cat with large amounts of magic would almost certainly attract her attention.
Stowing her wand she quickly assumed her feline shape and made her way out of the alley, looking at the street signs to verify where she was relative to her destination. It seemed to be a normal, suburban muggle neighborhood. Nothing indicated the presence of magic. Still, Minerva wasn't so easily fooled.
It wasn't long until she found what she was looking for, a street sign saying 'Ryde Park Rd.'. She turned to the side to see a house numbered 123. She followed the road until she perched herself on a fence post of number 151. From there she saw her target.
To the uninitiated observer, 150 Ryde Park Road seemed to be a house like all the others in the street. A two floor brick building with white-framed windows, a wooden door and a small garden. She didn't sense any magic, but she knew there were wards that could block magic from seeping out, so that didn't necessarily mean anything. Besides, her feline form wasn't that great at sensing magic anyway.
Looking along the deserted road in both directions, she saw nothing and no one coming, so she crossed the road and jumped across the fence into the garden of number 150. She had been prepared to feel magic, but the wave of power that hit her the moment she passed the border of the property took her by surprise. It was nothing compared to the wards of Hogwarts, of course, but still much stronger than she had expected.
Perching herself on a decorative lawn ornament, she gazed into the window. What she saw was clearly the living room, a couch and two armchairs, a coffee table, one of those 'telly' devices muggles used.
'I can sense all the magic in the air from here, how is that thing even working in there?'
The room was empty, as far as she could tell, so she made her way around the house, perching herself on another windowsill. Gazing in, she saw what could only be the kitchen, unlike the living room it was not empty. A woman, maybe in her early thirties, stood at the counter, seemingly enjoying lunch. Minerva suspected her to be Emma Granger, Hermione's mother.
The girl sitting on a chair at the table could only be Hermione herself. She sat there, her eyes closed. Occasionally she raised an eyebrow or let a smile cross her lips. Minerva couldn't for the life of her figure out what she was doing.
Suddenly, Mrs. Granger spoke up. Minerva could just barely make out what she said through the glass. "Hermione, could you wake Sunset? I'll have lunch ready in a few minutes."
"Okay mum."
Minerva watched carefully to see where Hermione went. Much to the teacher's surprise she went into the living room. Confused, Minerva hopped down from the windowsill and made her way back to the lawn ornament.
By the time she had reclaimed her previous perch, Hermione had leaned over the couch, gently stroking the air there. 'Disillusioned maybe? But then how could Miss Granger see her?' She saw that Hermione was speaking, but it was too quiet and she was too far from the window to hear.
Suddenly, Minerva felt magic trying to take hold in her mind. She wasn't as skilled an occlumens as Albus or Severus, but she wasn't a slouch either. Focusing her mind she prevented the magic from taking hold and suddenly saw a girl with red and blonde hair materialize next to Hermione who herself had stood back up and was now leading the way back to the kitchen, leaving Minerva to stare into an empty room.
The transfiguration professor was stunned. That ward had been quite powerful. Albus or Severus wouldn't have had any problems with it, but it had brought her to her limits, barely managing to stop it from taking hold. She couldn't tell exactly what it had tried to do, but she could guess.
'Mister Brewer mentioned that they have notice-me-nots set up on the windows. It was probably meant to stop me from noticing her appear, but why was she invisible to begin with? Was she doing something magical? Transformed maybe? That could explain why she was completely hidden. I'll have to tell Albus about this.'
Slinking to a shadowed corner of the garden, between a small tree and the garden wall, Minerva turned back to her human form. "Expecto Patronum. Message for Albus. I've arrived at the house. The notice-me-nots are there, and they're quite powerful, I barely managed to resist them. Miss Shimmer was completely hidden. When I managed to resist the wards, she suddenly came into view. I can only suspect she was doing something so obviously magical that the wards simply hid her completely. I'll investigate further and report in tonight."
Prompted by a flick of her wand, the glowing, silvery cat before her nodded, stood up, turned around until it was facing loosely north and jumped away, turning into a silvery mist mid-jump and vanishing. She nodded. Her message was on the way and Albus would know not to answer until she reported in tonight. Returning to her feline form, she made her way back to the edge of the property, perching herself on a fencepost.
She continued her vigil for a few hours, but when a car made its way up the road and parked next to the property, a man getting out and walking up the door, before pulling out a key, opening it and entering the building, Minerva knew that it was time to leave for the day.
In the cover of the darkness, she returned to human form and pulled out her wand, scanning the wards over the house. Her eyes widening at what she saw, she turned on the spot and vanished.
"Come in."
Albus Dumbledore smiled when the door to his office opened, revealing his deputy. A thoughtful frown marred her face.
"I received your message, Minerva. I must admit I'm quite impressed that Miss Shimmer can cast a notice-me-not that could give you trouble without formal training."
"That's the problem, Albus. I scanned their wards. The house has wards on par with some of the manors of our old pureblood families. They're not quite as powerful, but expertly crafted and remarkably efficient, not to mention that they most certainly weren't in place when Mister Brewer visited the house. I don't think Sunset Shimmer is untrained. She couldn't achieve that level of skill without formal training. And that's before considering that I didn't recognize any of the ward schemes."
"Are you suggesting that she has formal training from a school or master of whom we are unaware?"
Minerva frowned. "I know it sounds unlikely Albus, but I can't think of a more plausible explanation. I don't think I'll be able to find out much more unless Miss Shimmer leaves the house."
"Very well, continue your observation. If you can't find out what secrets she hides now, we'll get more answers in July."
With a nod, Minerva left the office.
The next morning, Minerva was once more in her feline form, curled up in the sun on a large rock in the garden of 150 Ryde Park Road. She used the time to think over what she had seen the previous day as she waited for Miss Shimmer to leave the house. Not long before noon, she got lucky.
Miss Shimmer, now wearing a much lighter training outfit and with her curly hair tied up in a ponytail, made her way out of the house. Covertly following her, Minerva was wondering where they were going. Sunset was jogging at a good pace, leaving the Transfiguration professor struggling to keep up while remaining undetected.
After a good fifteen minutes, they entered a small park area. Minerva saw that Miss Shimmer entered an area with various concrete ramps, low metal fences and other such things. A number of muggle kids were there, riding up and down the ramps or grinding along the fences using strange boards with wheels attached to them. Stopping at the edge of the area, Sunset began stretching. At first Minerva suspected she wanted to join them, but she clearly had no board like they did.
Minerva was quite baffled when she saw Miss Shimmer start to run around the area, vaulting over the rails, running up the ramps, jumping back down, rolling to arrest her fall and preserve her momentum and using various other techniques she had never seen before. Sure, many of them were common techniques for traversing obstacles, but she had never seen it done as a sport before. Judging by their bewildered expressions, many of the muggle youths, most of them older than Miss Shimmer, hadn't either.
To say they were surprised at seeing her running up and jumping down ramps two or three times her own height would be an understatement. For a good hour, Minerva watched the young girl practice various traversal techniques. Finally she sat down in the shadow of the tree that was the animagus' perch, resting for a good few minutes. Then she got up, and walked deeper into the line of trees.
Minerva watched carefully as the girl looked around. Once she had reassured herself that no-one was watching, Miss Shimmer closed her eyes and simply vanished. There was no bang, crack or even a quiet pop as produced by apparition, she didn't spin on the spot or twist like water in a drain, her form simply wavered for a short moment, and disappeared. The only thing Minerva detected was a momentary magical discharge and even that was barely noticeable to her feline form's passive senses. Had she been a few yards further away, she wouldn't have detected it at all.
Suspecting what had happened, Minerva raced back through gardens and across roads until she reached the Granger residence, and sure enough, standing in the kitchen, still in her exercise clothes, was Sunset Shimmer, drinking a glass of water. In complete bafflement, Minerva returned to human form, and apparated back to Hogwarts.
"Come in."
Albus got no chance to greet his deputy as Minerva spoke up the moment she opened the door. "She can apparate, Albus."
Raising an eyebrow, the headmaster sat up straighter. "Pardon?"
"Sunset Shimmer is capable of apparition. Or something similar at least, there were some inconsistencies, but she clearly disappeared and reappeared a good fifteen minute's jog away."
"How did you follow her?"
"By guessing where she went and running like wild. Not to mention taking a few shortcuts. Still it was nearly a mile."
"So she apparated home?" At Minerva's nod he tilted his head in thought. "I wonder why she only apparated home and not there as well."
"She jogged the way there as a warm-up."
"Am I to understand there are other details you haven't mentioned yet?" Another nod. "Then by all means, go ahead. Take a seat and tell me all that happened."
Once Minerva had explained everything that had happened, Albus leaned back in thought. "I recognize the activity. It's a muggle sport called Parkour. Olympe mentioned it in a letter recently. She enjoys occasionally watching the muggles as much as I do." He chuckled lightly. "Apparently the sport was developed in France a few years ago, but it hasn't gained much public attention yet. I wonder how she heard of it."
"I see you're still in regular contact with Madame Maxime."
"Indeed I am. Our correspondence is always delightful, though I do wish we could meet in person more often. I'll have to send her a letter. Perhaps Miss Shimmer has been to France. If so, Olympe might be able to find out more." He smiled at his deputy. "Regardless, it seems that Miss Shimmer is aware of the effect physical exercise can have on magical ability. Something many of our old Pureblood families seem to have forgotten."
"True. They seem to think physical exercise beneath them. To their misfortune, political posturing doesn't have the same effect."
"Indeed. It's actually well documented. Many of the strongest witches and wizards are and were Quidditch players, aurors or others with jobs involving physical exercise."
"Well, even I only know since Poppy told me. It's hardly known outside of healer circles."
"True. Do let me know if you learn anything else."
"Come in."
Albus was glad to see his Transfiguration teacher a lot calmer than she had been the day before.
"Ah Minerva, what have you learned?"
"I followed Misses Granger and Shimmer to school today. They are both highly intelligent and avid learners, Miss Shimmer also seems to be a skillful artist."
"Ah yes. Good. This may be a school of magic, but art comes short on too many occasions."
Minerva winced as she recalled the last time Albus had had the students sing the school song, but pushed forward regardless. "They seem to be a bit solitary when it comes to contact with other students, but it may well be that their intelligence intimidates them. They are very close to one another though."
"They do live in the same house."
"True. They also call each other with a word I have never heard before."
"Oh? And what word is that?"
"Asaruuk."
"I will admit that it is not part of any language I've ever heard. A made up term, perhaps?"
"That's what I first thought as well, but it seems to be only a single word of a complete language, one the two of them speak in when they are alone. I've never heard anything like it. It sounds like someone took Gaelic and Arabic and combined them. They also speak it very fast."
"Mysterious. These two only open up more questions."
"That they do."
With a wave of her wand, Minerva opened the door to her office. "Ah, Albus, what brings you here?"
"I just got word back from Olympe, I thought I should let you know. Neither Beauxbatons nor the French Ministry of Magic have ever heard of Miss Shimmer, even the veela Registry comes up empty."
"Ah well, it was worth a try."
"That it was. Since you didn't come by, I take it you have learned nothing of note today or yesterday?"
"Not really. I have learned that Miss Shimmer can cook reasonably well, but that's neither here nor there. It also seems that Miss Granger, while not as fit as Miss Shimmer is at least decent at sports. Not exceptional, but she can hold her own."
"I see. Thank you, Minerva."
"Any time, Albus."
"Come in."
Professor McGonnagall once more pushed open the door to the Headmaster's office.
"Ah good evening Minerva, I take it you have finished your observations?"
"Yes. I have."
"Did you learn anything else of note?"
"Only that Miss Shimmer apparently practices martial arts. Between that, her magical skill and this Parkour she practices, she will be a terrifying duelist some day."
"Oh my, yes. All too many wizards forget that in most circles of dueling, magic isn't the only tool to bring down an opponent. How skilled is she?"
"She seems to be at a relative beginner level, so she only has a small range of techniques available, those she practices with great skill. She seems to focus on methods to disable an opponent with as little effort and doing as little lasting damage as possible."
"Admirable. And very impressive. I look forward to seeing what she will achieve at Hogwarts.
"As do I, Albus. As do I. With both anticipation and trepidation."
Albus couldn't help the quiet chuckle that escaped him.
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Hah, can't detect her unicorn form yet. Sucks to be them.
nice work.
I'm kinda curious to see Sunset take a fall and start bleeding. I'm wondering if her blood is silver or not
I really like how you did this chapter. instead of doing what most writers would do and fill the chapter with a long rambling dialog, you chose to do a series of nice "Slice-of-life" vignettes. And it was done very, very well.
I can't wait for more.
Well done.
The Monk
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Why thank you. I do find overly long dialogue without interruptions or narration to be rather tiresome.
A great chapter from beginning to end. Kept waiting for it to be revealed that Sunset knew she was being watched and was so happy that it never happened and instead just kept the focus on McGonagall's observations.
9516508
The significance of this detail is?
9518336
Unicorns in the Harry Potter universe have silver blood.
9518363
Right… I forgot that my bad.
Annnnd I know have the image of sunset flipping snake with a judo throw during a duel stuck in ky head
Alas, it was not to be. Well, at least past year 1.
I'm not sure Hermione's house has fence