90 The-Little-Beetle-That-Could (I)

Harry stepped through the portal and arrived inside his apartment… He wasn't sure if he would be able to nail a small bug with Stunning Charm or not, so he decided to grab one of the empty Potion vials he had in stock… Harry stopped in his tracks when he heard Hedwig hoot in anger at him from her perch… She was angry at him for leaving her here, but at the same time, she also refused to go inside a cage or his trunk for that matter.

"Oh… You don't get to take that tone with me. It was you who refused to go inside a cage or my trunk and no matter what you believe, you can't fly to Britain" Harry pointed out with a condescending look on his face. Once again, Hedwig hooted at him in anger and Harry opened his mouth to say something, but he froze when he realized what he was doing and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Hedwig, I will talk with you later, I am in a hurry right now" Harry started to walk away as he waved his hand dismissively, but Hedwig wasn't going to have any of it… She preened her feathers in indignation and speared her wings to take flight… Harry obviously noticed what she was doing, but he didn't bother to pay her any mind as his feathery familiar came flying from behind and landed on his shoulder. She started to angrily nip at his ears, but Harry let her be.

He simply raised his hand and started to stroke her, placating her quite a bit in one go. Harry finally arrived inside the storage room and started to rummage through the trunk where he kept the empty Potion vials. He found one of the Potion vials with the Unbreakable enchantment and that was exactly what he was looking for. He nodded his head in satisfaction before placing the vial inside one of his robe pockets and he was about to start opening a portal when all of a sudden, Norton popped up.

"Master Hadrian already back? Norton wasn't expecting Master Hadrian to return so early!" Norton chimed looking excited about the fact that Harry was back.

"Sorry, Norton, I am not back yet. Something came up and I needed to grab an empty Potion vial. I will be going back right now" Harry explained the situation and Norrton's ears dropped in disappointment after hearing his words. "No need to feel bad, Norton, I will be back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow" Harry tried to comfort Norton and it worked when his ears perked up.

"Okay, Norton, then I will get going" Harry said as he started to open a portal inside the bathroom. "Hedwig, will you mind getting off of me?" Harry asked as he turned toward his shoulder where Hedwig was still perched. Harry could swear that she gave him an offended look, before huffing and rolling her eyes at him. She chuffed at him with her wings before flying off from his shoulder.

He looked at her while shaking his head for a few moments before he finally stepped through the portal, leaving Norton and Hedwig in his apartment. The portal closed behind his back and he cracked his neck before taking a deep breath. |Good luck, Hadrian| His mom wished him luck just before he placed his hand on the door handle and slowly pushed it open, not wanting to scare off the bug.

He walked out of the bathroom, and it was laughingly easy for him to locate the bug with his senses… The bug was watching him like a hawk from one of the art pieces hanging on the wall. Harry hummed nonchalantly as he made his way toward the enchanted window. It wasn't an actual window, but the spot was charmed to show the real-time view of outside the tent. For almost half a minute, Harry simply stared outside the window, but then all of a sudden, he raised his left hand and cast the Stunning Charm.

The bug's eyes would have gone wide if it was possible, but unfortunately, the bug was so shocked by the sudden movement and the attack that it wasn't able to do anything until the red beam struck it… The bug fell down on the mat from the art piece without even a twitch. He walked up to the bug and cast another Stunning Charm at the bug, just in case the bug was playing possum… It never hurts to be too careful. He leaned down beside the bug and picked it up in his hand…

He finally took a closer look at the bug and found that it was a blue water beetle with red markings like glasses around its eyes… Harry nodded his head in satisfaction and started to open another portal, but this one led to Jacklyn's backyard. Her backyard was a nice place to extract information as there was nothing around her house for miles. He stepped through the portal and dropped the water beetle on the ground.

The portal closed behind his back and leaned down beside the water beetle and started to draw an intricate runic circle around the microscopic creature with the tip of his Wand, but he kept the runic circle big enough to contain a human. The runic circle he was drawing was based on Anti-Animagus Ward. He found the Ward in one of the Potter Family books.

Originally, the Ward was designed to prevent an Animagus from entering a property and revert them into their human form before throwing them off, but after modifying the Ward, instead of preventing an Animagus from entering the property, it would prevent an Animagus to a designated space and it would also prevent the Animagus from transforming back into their animal forms. When he finished drawing the runic circle, he started to pour his Magic into the runic circle.

Harry stepped into the runic circle and pointed one of his fingers at the water beetle and cast the Animagus Reversal Spell. Unsurprisingly, the water beetle transformed into a woman… The woman had blonde hair, set in elaborate curls, oddly contrasting her heavily-jawed face. Her spectacles were studded with jewels and after a bit more inspection, Harry realized that her spectacles were decorated with rhinestones. He also noticed that the woman was sporting surprisingly long nails.

His lips curled up in distaste as he started to cast Diagnostic Charms on her to check if she was carrying a weapon on her person besides her Wand, but Harry wasn't impressed when he found that she was carrying her Wand in her crocodile-skinned handbag…

|Stupid brainless bint| Harry cursed inside his head and tossed the handbag outside the runic circle. Yes, the woman could still summon her Wand, but he wasn't expecting much from her and it was also a test, he wanted to see if she could Wandlessly summon her Wand or not… After all, she had mastered the Animagus Transformation, which was probably the most complex branch of Transfiguration.

Since she wasn't concealing any more weapons on her person, Harry finally decided to wake her up… He snapped his fingers and the woman blinked as she sat up with a jolt. The woman raised her well-manicured eyebrows and frantically looked around and she finally stopped moving, when she found Harry. A nasty smile, but at the same time, a sweet smile formed on her face.

"You are in a lot of trouble… Attacking me and then kidnapping me? I have no idea how you did it, but if you don't let me go then you are going to be a heap of trouble, Boy-Who-Lived or not" The woman said sweetly as she slowly pushed herself off the ground. Harry simply allowed her to speak for the time being as there was always a chance that she might let something slip on her own.

|Do you know her, mom?| Harry asked as he continued to watch the woman carefully. He had to admit, the woman probably loved theatrics. Her magenta-colored robes were hurting his eyes and the woman was also sporting three gold teeth… From what he had already seen, he was almost sure that the woman wasn't a hired Wand, but he couldn't be sure… This might be her fake front.

|...I don't believe I do| Lily answered after thinking for a bit… She guessed that the woman was probably in her thirties, but no matter how much Lily tried, she couldn't remember the woman from her memories…

"What is your name?" Harry asked, not looking bothered in the slightest by her opening statements. The woman smiled at him sickly as she bared her three gold teeth to him.

"I am Rita Skeeter, you must have heard about me" The woman huffed haughtily with a smug glint in her eyes. "Now do you finally understand that mistake you have made… If you let me go right now then I will look this over" The woman smiled sweetly, looking like she already won the argument.

Even though Rita was acting haughtily, she was a bit worried on the inside… This was the first time someone captured her, but not only that, the person who captured her also knew about her most guarded secret… She knew that she was in a heap of trouble, but she would have been more worried if Harry Potter wasn't a child. That is why she was hoping to scare him with her words and escape.

"Never heard of you" Harry answered back with a bland look on his face, making the smile disappear from Rita's face. She realized that this was going to be much harder than she imagined as she barely held back her scathing retort. "So, why were you watching me?" Harry asked with a thoughtful look on his face.

Rita blinked at his question before she finally burst out laughing… "You are interrogating me? You are really interrogating me? This is hilarious…!!" The woman continued to laugh roaringly…

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