Final Cantrip

A Harry Potter/ Witch Hunter Robin fanfic
N.A.Sinclair.


None of the following characters are mine and a lawsuit dealing with
a question of possession and fair use would only lead to my financial
sorrow although it would increase my PR as a writer.

C&C is (as always) welcome and yes, I know my formatting sucks.


N.A.S.




  Three hundred and twenty years have passed since the Coven fell into
 the Dark. A place forgotten. The teaching of the forbidden.
 Secrets Whispered in the Dark in a Lost Place. A School for
 Witches.

                                ........Fatal Cantrip


  Harry watched in horror as the door opened and Neville stumbled into
 the bathroom as Hermione finished uttering the final words of the
 spell..
 It wasn't the other boy's entrance that disturbed him so.

  It was the results.

  Neville had stumbled forward arms pinwheeling and slid across the thin
 line of silver powder that provided the pair's magical protection and
 set the boundaries of the spell and everything suddenly went dark.
 The dank smell of the old bathroom was replaced with a gentle breeze
 which brought the night scents of moist earth and mouldering leaves.

  "Oh dear."

 That simple statement in it's plain matter of fact way by Hermione
 coupled with the coolness to the breeze which whispered by his cheek
 confirmed his worst fears.

  He had expected to be transported to the sunny moist heat of
 a jungle -this wasn't it.

 Things were just getting worse and worse.

  Harry would never understand how spells could go as wrong as they often
 did. And the sheer lack of logic to it all sometimes made him want to
 scream.
 *luminos* he muttered tiredly with a wave of his wand and began to
 fumble in the wet weeds for his missing glasses.
 The girl beside him silently began to pick up the apparatus which had
 been so orderly a brief minute ago and now lay scattered.
 Harry savagely hoped that Neville (wherever he was) was now hopping
 about in the form of that toad he liked so much.

  Where were his glasses?

  First Ron was bitten by that Spider-wraith, then this.
 After he had been attacked (in the boys toilets if it could be believed)
 Ron had lain as if dead, lifeless in the schools infirmary.
 For the last two days and as each minute of each hour had ticked by he
 had grown more and more still. The angry reds and sickly yellow of the
 bite on his arm was the only bit of colour on his usually pale freckled
 skin which had taken the look of a bad waxwork..
 All of the staff had tried their hand at a cure but none of their efforts
 had done anything but slow the creeping process of venom.
 Madame Pomfrey's medical magics and Professor Sprout's herbals
 and posits had done nothing and neither had any of her healing spells.
 Even Professor Snape, muttering and scowling had even tried to transform
 the poison in his students body into something less harmful to no avail.

  When Harry had gone to Dumbledore with the suggestion of aid from
 Falwkes. Dumbledore, looking older than Harry had ever seen him, had
 sadly explained that such creatures as the one that had struck Ron were
 so uncommon that remedies for such a thing were if not unknown then at
 least rare beyond rare. Hagrid had even tried to seek aid from his old
 pet in the forest who had raised furry palps in dismay at the mention of
 it's deamonic kindred.
 It wasn't any one thing that told him things were wrong.

 It was everything.

  Of course it wasn't like anything had gone right for quite some time and
 Harry was becoming far to familiar with the feeling of losing one close
 to him. Finally as day after day, hour after hour had passed hope had
 appeared in the form of a tired looking Hermione half-dragging an old
 mouldy book.

  She had been, to put it mildly, a sight.
 Her hair was dusty mess of snarls and cob-webs and her eyes were rimmed
 in red from lack of sleep and crying.
 Now however they glimmered with a light that Harry had not seen for
 days.

  "I've got it." She said excitedly.

  "What?" Harry asked tiredly.

  "This is it." She opened the book raising a cloud of odd-smelling dust
 and pointing excitedly at the queer-looking script inside.

  "The cure." She whispered excitedly.

  Suddenly Harry was nothing but interested.

  He squinted at the crabbed writing and his itching eyes widened as he
 read the description of the very creature which had attacked his friend.
 Turning the pages anxiously he read about the remedy made from rare
 plants from a distant land..

  "So we get someone in Peru to get these flowers? Who?"

  "No one." Hermionie said. "We go ourselves. Now. Otherwise."
 She stifled a sob." Otherwise they will all fuss and fumble and it
 will be to late."

  "Us?" Asked Harry surprised. "How?"

  "With this." She said producing a slim volume from her pocket.
 "Advancedtransport spells."

  Harry stared at her dumbfounded. "But that belongs in the restricted
 section."

  "And this doesn't?" She gestured at the larger book. "How do you
 think I got this?
 I've got special research privileges from McGonagall for my advanced
 work this year remember?"

  She sighed in exasperation, suddenly very much the old Hermionie
 who Harry was used to.

  "Sounds like breaking the rules." Harry teased gently for the
 first time in what seemed ages feeling like smiling.

  "Bother the rules." She replied with a slight flush and
 they had set to work.

***

  Although this current  accident wasn't exactly planned for it
 wasn't quite a surprise.

  Harry strained his eyes and tried to make out something in the
 darkness.
 He was sure that wherever they were it probably would be somewhere bad.

***

 Alarms had been ringing for the last hour.

  Information had been sketchy at first and the team had moved out
 with a direction to go and little else. but now as they drove
 information began to trickle in.

  "Children." They had been told. "Dangerous children from abroad:
 Witches."

  The photos that rolled out of the automobiles data links
 printer were actually copies of sketches.
 The drawings had been assembled as composites put together by best
 guesses and by what Amon derisively called the "Hounds of God".
 As far as Robin understood these people were individuals who had a
 certain sensitivity and ability to use the Craft in small ways.
 -not Witches but simply possesing a few useful gifts.
 (They were of course still watched carefully) These few could sense
 disruptions and disturbances and acted as both an early warning
 system and means of aiding the Hunters.

"But why were they a threat and what were they doing here?" Robin
wondered aloud and gingerly took a sip out of the "travelling mug" she
recently purchased. Despite the fact that STN-J used the most cutting
edge of modern technology she was distrustful of the device and found
that most of the roadside stops made horrible coffee.

  "They're Witches." Amon said simply not taking his eyes from
 the headlight-lit road.
  "What else do we need to know?"

  "Agreed." Michael joined in over her headset. "As far as we
 can tell they just *appeared* out in the middle of nowhere
 and set the sensitives jangling.
 As far as we can tell they were in a national park near Otakai
 and as far as we can tell have not moved. Of course it's only
 been about an hour and they are on foot.

  Zaizen's voice broke in startling Robin. "We can't count on them
 staying there. If we look at their sudden appearance. They may
 just as easily disappear again.
 It's our job to stop them." He continued.
  "Since you were already in Chiba Amon your team is the closest.
 If you run into any problems we have Miho, Haruhito and Doujima
 en-route should you encounter resistance and for final cleanup
 we have a helicopter unit from Factory which will wait in Ohara."

 "So, should we wait for backup?" Robin asked.

  "No. I have full confidence in your abilities and you have proved
 yourself against multiple targets on previous occasions. The
 others are simply a precautionary measure. Amon, I expect you to
 perform as effectively as always.
 Robin, your abilities are powerful but don't grow overconfident."

  "Hai." Robin acknowledged.

  As Amon drove Robin looked over the artists impressions again.
 The two Witches didn't look evil but she knew better than to
 trust that appearance innocence. She had seen (and mistaken) such
 an appearance of innocence before and would not do it again.

                             ***

  "So where are we then?" Harry asked looking up at the
 unfamiliar constellations which shone dimly in the dark sky.

  "I'm not sure." Hermione frowned. "Things look all turned about.
 If I had known this was going to happen I would have brought
 Glimmerings "Stars of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres".

  "If I had known this was going to happen I would have turned
 Longbottom into a statue two hours before we had started all this.

  "Harry!"

  "Well it's his fault we are wherever we are isn't it?"

  "I suppose if we hadn't rushed so we would have been able to do
 something." Hermione admitted.
  "Not to Neville of course." She added quickly. "But we could have
 set up some sort of warning system or something." She sighed.
  "It's my fault really.
 I shouldn't have been so quick to do things. I was sloppy."

  Harry moved forward and gave her a little shake.

  "It is NOT your fault Hermione." He said fiercely with
 another little shake to go with his words and she looked at him
 with wide startled eyes.

  "Not your fault." He repeated more gently and he raised a hand
 to stroke her face feeling a strange alkward yetcomfortable feeling
 he had never quite felt about her before.
  "We're both worried about Ron and that just muddles things. Neither
 of us is at fault here."

  "Harry." Hermione murmured and raised her hand to place his
 within her own small one.

 Suddenly they both jerked away from each other as if burned.

  "Well." Hermione said awkwardly and Harry fancied he could see
 a faint reddish glow upon her cheeks that mirrored a flush
 of his own.
 "Well, I suppose it really doesn't matter where we are.
 We should quickly finish rebuilding this charm again.
 The sooner we do so..."

  "The sooner we help Ron." Harry finished and his friend gave him
 a shy moonlit smile.

  Hermione opened the book and by the cold blue glow of their
 wands Harry began to lay out the components of the spell for
 the second time that evening.
***
  After parking the car Amon and Robin met the local policeman at
 the parks' entrance and they showed him the badges and documents
 that they kept for such purposes.

  "We don't many problems round here." The young patrolman said.
 "Just the usual sort of thing you know."

  Amon nodded.

  "All we need." He said . "Is for you to watch this entrance. We'll
 go in."

  "And you're sure they're here?"

  "Our informants were sure." Amon said.

  "Are you sure you don't need any sort of backup?" The officer asked
 with images of Americian style COPS programs he had watched while
 on vacation in Hawaii.

  "I could get some people from the station and go in with
 you or go myself."

  "No." Amon replied curtly, and then as if remembering. "No, officer,
 but thank you."

  "Inspector Hanada and myself are trained to deal with these sorts
 of violent offenders" Amon continued. And, besides..."
 He opened his greatcoat partially showing his Orbo pistol (although
 not showing enough to clearly identify it's actual nature.)

  "We are better equipped for this sort as well."

  Even in the dim light of the entrance to the park Robin could see the
 police officer pale visibly.

  Patrol Officer Yoshitori hadn't encountered a situation like this
 before. Despite the fact that Tokyo was across the Bay Otaki just
 wasn't the "big city". Traffic tickets, the occasional drunk and
 some petty crime were all he was used to. These two inner city cops
 from the Special Crimes probably saw all of that before breakfast
 and before they started their day.
 Despite the fact that the girl looked like she was only a teenager
 these were the pistol-packin' real thing. Heck, with cops this scary
 he didn't want to meet who they were after - big time gangsters or
 crazies most like.

"Well, if you'd prefer me staying here I'll do that." He said and tried
not to show his relief.

***

  The two Hunters moved almost silently as they moved into the park.
 Although it was night, things were still easy to make out,
 lit by moonlight and light pollution that spilled from Tokyo.
 Just to be sure however Amon wore a pair of light enhancement
 goggles flipped upon his forehead.

  Robin found that the more she used the Power the better her night
 vision had become, although she also had put on her spectacles.
 Seeing she had discovered, was quite a different thing than
 seeing well.

  The park was a forested area but had many gravel paved walking
 paths which wound through the area with the addition of
 semi-floating corduroy walkways in the wetland areas which allowed
 the curious to inspect the flora of the area without either sinking
 in themselves or disturbing the terrain.
 Due to the pathways it was easy to move through the deceptively
 thick forested areas and in a clump of bushes Robin could see the
 orange light and twisting shadows of a small fire.

  Amon made a few gestures with his hands and Robin nodded.

  Separating herself from her partner she slowly began a careful
 circle around the fire.
 She lay each foot down with a careful precision and slowly parted
 the small limbs which obstructed her path and then held
 them as she passed and then let them fall back into place before
 releasing them.

  When she was younger - or even a few months ago she would sneak
 out of the Monastery and walk the grounds alone at night.
 Although she had been raised there and embraced most of the
 vows as the members of the Order she still was young and needed at
 times to stretch her wings.
 This stretching expressed itself in explorations of the
 forested lands that lay beside the Monastery's vineyards. If she
 moved silently and carefully she would often be rewarded with the rare
 site of the forest creatures that lived there and shunned humanity.

  As she moved in closer she could hear voices speaking in English
 although what they were saying made little sense. Robin was unsure
 at Amon's ability in that language but that probably didn't matter.
 She supposed they were mantras which helped them focus their abilities.
 Of course what they were actually doing was still a mystery, and, it
 would soon be put to a stop anyway.

  She came closer to the clearing and was soon only a few steps away.
 Suddenly she heard a sharp *crack* on the other side of the clearing
 and remembered that although Amon was a predator, he was an urban
 predator.

  Harry sighed (for what seemed like the hundredth time that evening)
 and wiped his brow.
 Clearing the area and then tracing out the patterns for the spell
 on the ground with the various powders and herbs was more difficult
 than simply doing it on the even stone flags of Hogwarts.
 The coal for the brazier had been scattered as well and so the two
 had been forced to scrounge and improvise with some of the fallen
 deadwood.
 He pointed his wand at the silver coin which lay at the junction
 between two intricately drawn lines of powdered silver and copper
 and muttered one of the phrases that Hermione had taught him.
 There was small flash of blue light and then the coin began to slowly
 pulse with energy. The mystic energy then seeped from the coin and
 into the lines of powder and that section of the matrix joined it's
 neighbour in the web of power.
 Only five more to go.

  Hermione placed another pinch of fire beetle wing in the small
 copper cauldron and frowned.
 She knew they were in the Southern hemisphere but had no real idea where.
 Her calculations needed a certain amount of precision but she hoped that
 if she used approximations of the original amounts of ingredients and that
 this would give them that extra smidgen of luck by invoking the
 Law of Similarity.
  She just hoped Harry was doing as well on his end of things. As long
 as they both were successful they would be picking up the herbs Ron
 needed and be home in time to treat him and have afternoon tea.

  Suddenly there was a loud *crack* from the darkness that circled
 their fire-lit haven. It was followed shortly afterward by a muffled
 curse.
 Hemione froze, then threw a sharp glance towards Harry. Her friend
 had stopped his work and was looking warily out into the dark.

  "Hello?" She asked tentatively. "Is there anyone there?"

  There was no reply.

 Hermione raised her wand.

 *luminos*

 She murmured and pale light shone on it's tip. She gave a
 flicking motion (as one might do to flick water off something) and
 the dim ball of light drifted lazily towards the trees, expanding
 and growing brighter as it did so.

  At the same time as Hermione was doing this Harry, for a reason
 he couldn't explain got the feeling that there was someone else
 ...behind them.

  Confident in Hermione's skills in Defence against the Dark Arts
 he turned, wand poised.

  From the darkness outside the fire came a darker silhouette.

  "I see you." Harry's nervousness  caused a tremor of anxiety in his
 voice. "Come out now where I can see you and there won't be any
 trouble.."

 The figure stepped closer into the firelight and Harry gaped.

  A girl.

  She was tall and seemed to be in some sort of dark robes.
 Her hair, a sort of flickering platinum colour in the firelight was
 tied in rather odd braids. Like Harry himself she also wore spectacles.

  Harry lowered his wand (keeping it ready) and tried to look as non-
 threatening as possible. After all, if one wasn't a Wizard then a wand
 was simply a short stick wasn't it?

  "Hello." He began again. ""We're friends and we seem to be re, a bit
 lost. Do you speak English?"

  Harry suddenly realised that Hermione had made a dreadful mistake
 in casting the light spell and quickly tried to think of a way to
 explain it to these foreign muggles. Perhaps they could say they
 were some sort of camping lights?
 He seemed to remember some sort of glowing tubes....

  "Harry." Hermione hissed and he spared a glance in her direction
 and felt a chill.

  Emerging into the witchlight facing her came another dark clad
 figure and as he did so the strangest thing happened.
 The nimbus of light that had further lit the area flickered and died.
 As the man entered it.

  "Harry?" Hermione's voice trembled and he watched as the man
 reached inside his coat.

  "Watch out!" Harry cried. They're Wizards!"

  He quickly turned his attention to the girl.

  She simply stood and watched him and made no attempt to produce a
 wand so he kept his low and at the ready. Behind him he could hear
 Hermione yell out.

 *Expelliarmus*
 - the disarming charm, followed quickly by a more uncertain

 *Rictusempra*
 to hopefully stun or petrify the man.
 This usually should have done the trick on most who were unused
 to wizardling duels but the and several other charms which ranged
 from irritants to more drastic things that were closer to a deeper
 shade of grey showed someone experienced in the Arts.

  The strange thing was the silence of it all.
 Despite his friends' spells there was no sound from the other wizard.
 The duel was strangely one-sided from the sound of things. The only
 other loud noises being the sound of Hermionie's nervous breathing.
 Harry longed to aid her but knew doing so would mean turning away
 from the girl and that would not do at all.

 Unless of course...unless she was incapacitated.

 He quickly raised his wand and also shouted out *Rictusempra*

 A thin thread of power flashed from his wand an towards the girl.

  -Where it stopped a few feet in front of her and splashed like
 a series of sparks which fizzed out upon the ground.

  The girl, who hadn't looked all that friendly to begin with looked
 even less so.

  Harry watched her eyes narrow behind her lenses and then threw
 his arm up in surprise at the wave of heat as a wall of fire shot
 up just in front of him.

  A wave of the wand and a muttered incantation extinguished the fire
 but the way it had shot up from nowhere shocked and frightened him.
 He had heard of Wizards not using wands but that was for master
 mages wasn't it?

 She seemed but a girl.

 He gave another gesture and shout and returned her fire with fire.

 Another mistake.

 Fire bloomed from his wand and instead of jetting toward his opponent it
 blew back and started to envelope him.
 He threw himself to one side to avoid the flames scattering brush
 and dust and breaking up the half assembled lines of power.

  All of that didn't matter however when he heard the frightened
 scream behind him - Hermione shouting out something he thought he would
 never hear uttered by her.

 *AVADA KEDAVRA* the death curse.

  Hiding behind a smouldering stump Harry dared a glance toward
 his struggling friend and was ill-rewarded for it.

  He cried out as he simultaneously heard and saw the gun in the
 stranger's hand fire and fire again., and Hermione fall.

  At that instant reason left him.

  He heard a terrible cry and never realised it was coming from him.

  He leapt to his feet and began to cast the death curse himself
 only to have his wand burst into flames in his hands.

  He flung the now useless piece of char from his burnt hands and
 ran at the man screaming.

  Pain tore into him and he fell to his knees.

  He felt curiously weak, as if som evital part of his self was gone,
 but he continued to crawl forward. Before he closed his eyes he
 managed to stagger another few feet and take Hermione's
 outflung hand.

***

  With a hiss the transport chamber closed on the unconscious form of the
 Witch. As the Factory agents attached it to the cables of the helicopter
 winch Robin wondered again about them.
 Where had they come from and what had they been doing? >From some
 English speaking country, from the sound of their voices and words but
 strange in their dress and use of the Craft. The man, a boy really, had
 actually possesed a strange lightening shaped scar on his forehead
 and not just some sort of tattoo. She wondered which it might have been,
 some type of brand or ritual scarring possibly related to the Sigil
 rune? She sighed. It seemed that evil knew no limits either in
 geography or age.

  "What is it?" Amon asked. He stood amongst the scattering of oddments
 that the Witches had left and had been leafing through one of the books
 that the fallen Witches had left behind.

  "They seemed so young." Robin said.

  "No younger than yourself." He replied. "And no less dangerous.."

 He held up the ornate ampoule from where it dangled on the thong about
 his neck.

 What was normally was full of the Orbo Robin so disliked now only
 contained a few tiny droplets.

 "Those "youngsters" were deadly, or at least would have been without
 protection. Look at this. My coat managed to deflect anything I couldn't
 dodge for her early attacks but her final Spell drained this as well as
 half the Orbo bullets before I could shoot.
 Why do you think I needed so many shots to put her down? The rounds were
 only half full."

  Robin shuddered.
 Such power spoke of trained Adepts.
 But where would they get such training?

  "And the books?" She gestured at the volume in Amon's hand.

 "I don't know." He replied. "The language is unfamiliar. Not
 English,not Japanese and doesn't look like any Latin scripts that I
 have seen either."

 He held the book for her inspection and she shook her head at the
 unfamiliar symbols.

  "Anyway." He said. "Not our responsibility. Orders from Zaizen. We take
 the books to Narita tonight and put them on a flight to Italy.
 Headquarters will deal with translating them."

 Robin nodded.

  "And Robin." Amon continued as he walked away from the fire into the
 dark.

  "Yes?"

  "Good job this evening,"

  The flush of heat on Robin's cheeks wasn't entirely from the fire.



10/30/03 NAS


     __________________________________________________________________
                             _____________
            Seraphim, the Restless Angel with a (borrowed) sword.
                               ________

         Nene, Ami,
       Girls with glasses. girls with computers. Pink hair. blue hair
                       _______________________
                 Robyn, Duke of Amber. Agent of Chaos.
 ***************************************************************************


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'