CHAPTER 8

5.17 a.m.

Tumbling to the floor of the Greengrass Manor, John muttered a "Fuck" before getting up, swearing to get good at landing when using the Floo network as Edwin just snorted at him.

"Ah, and this is?"

A man in his late 30s looked at him with curiosity, to which Edwin answered.

"My apprentice, Wick."

Getting up, he made sure that everything was on him before nodding at their contractor, Jacob Greengrass. The man had brown hair cut quite short and neatly, with a surprising young look for his age. He was neither chubby nor skinny, just in the middle, and stood tall at about 180 centimeters.

"Quite young for one, isn't he, Noire?"

"Yes, but I assure you that he has the talent and potential."

Assuring the man, Edwin nodded at him, to which John nodded back before casting his stealth spells, Quietus, Inlusio, and Odoriferum, making himself disappear in a second tops before quickly running and getting behind the man, placing his index finger on the man's back, causing him to freeze up.

"I get what you mean, that was fast."

Walking back to Edwin, he removed the charms as Edwin just grinned. This was their plan to convince him to bring along John, a performance of his wordless and wandless stealth spells.

Soon after, Aria and Charles appeared from the Floo as they introduced themselves, with Aria's Allure making the man slightly distracted for a few seconds before snapping himself of the Allure.

'Damn, he has quite the Occlumency.'

Letting them in, he brings them to the living room of the manor. The hallway from the Floo Network was long, maybe a precaution since there are chances that the Floo network could be compromised by Death Eaters or robbers.

The living room was HUGE, he meant as huge as a normal house's. So this is what living in a manor was like, too big for his taste honestly. Too much wasted space for just a living room. The seats were nice and comfy though, through a charm perhaps? And the desserts on the coffee table were good too.

Jacob excused himself to fetch his wife and kids who were waiting nearby. As soon as he left the room, Edwin and Charles immediately started scanning the whole house with Homenum Revelio, the Human-Presence-Revealing spell, to track the movement of all humans in the house.

After a few seconds of scanning the whole house, they stopped as they told the two to take their files out.

"Usually, bodyguard missions will have included the staff, people, and stations that the contractors hired or have nearby in the files, in the Company page, flip to it."

Flipping through the papers, he sees a few pages dedicated to the employees of the contractor, the people near him, etc.

"You should always scan every hour to make sure that no one other than the people on the list are near the scan in private, unless you are in public where it's impossible to track one by one."

Charles said as Edwin nodded in agreement.

"Aria already knows the revealing spell, but John doesn't. He's quite bad at picking up non-Combat spells, so it'll take a few days for him to learn."

Glaring at Edwin who just had a ghost smile, Charles grinned in amusement while Aria had a smug smirk on her beautiful face.

"Until then, you will follow along us when we cast the spell, Aria. Learn to distinguish every different presence in the scan as fast as you can. It saved my life countless times already."

Edwin supplied as the doors to the living room opened up, revealing the whole family. The wife, Celine, was a blond woman with straight long hair that reached her shoulder blades, and she was quite attractive. On her arms was a baby, Astoria Greengrass, his mind supplied.

But looking at the children, he couldn't help but feel his heart break when he sees Daphne as a 3-year-old walking so cutely. Harry. He had totally forgotten about the kid.

Mentally noting to help the kid at least without as much change to the plot as possible, he kept quiet as the mother noticed him, her eyes widening before whispering to her husband.

They whispered back and forth for a few seconds before the adults started talking about the protection details, leaving the young Daphe staring at him weirdly. Looking at Aria for some help, she just gave him an unsure shrug as the girl walked to him.

Pointing at him, she asked a cute question.

"Who are you?"

Getting up from his seat, he bends down to eye-level with the standing kid.

"... The name's John, I'm... your caretaker for the next few weeks."

He said with a half-truth as Daphne tilts her head to the side cutely.

"Care...taker?"

"That means I'm going to help your mom take care of you."

He said as he glanced at the adults who were looking at him. Ugh, he hates it when so many people look at him at once. The attention is sickening.

"Oh."

She said just one word as she grabs on his hand.

"Pull up?"

She asked him to raise her, he thinks? So, following her orders, he picked the girl up by carrying her by her armpits before resting her on his neck.

He was quite tall for a 5-year-old, currently standing at about 130 centimeters from his daily training, so the girl squealed when she was raised so high up, with his hands steadily on her legs to support her better.

"So high! John is so tall!"

Hearing an "Awww" from Aria, he looked over to the adults who just stared at John.

"We should go now."

He said with a hint of annoyance before walking with the girl in tow to the Floo network, since they were going via portkey given by the Ministry of Magic's DMLE (Department of Magical Law Enforcement) and DIMC (Department of International Magical Cooperation).

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5.48 a.m.

The Minister of Magic, Millicent Bagnold, was a chill lady, no doubt about it. She didn't even bat an eye at him at all about his age and treated him like any other hit-wizard. She was already in his "Good" list, which was only consisting of Edwin, Aria, Charles, and now her.

Aria and Celine hit it off, with the talks of girl products and about Astoria's cuteness, while the male adults were still talking about the protective details.

John could respect that, a loving father that was making sure that nothing happens to his family, he could see the love from his passion in keeping them safe.

So, that left him to take care of Daphne, who was sticking to him like a glue. She didn't even talk a lot at all like him, she just walks along with him with his hands holding onto hers when they were walking to the DIMC room for the portkey.

It was more of a comforting silence than awkward, but it was still weird that she even stuck to him. He honestly thought she would have gone to her mom, but lo and behold.

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6.01 a.m.

The trip with the portkey was again the worst feeling in the world, as it made both Daphne and Astoria start crying the moment they landed from the disturbing feeling.

While Astoria was being calmed down by her mother (Since she was the more vocal one while Daphne just started sobbing), John patted her in the back with skill since he had to take care of crying babies all the time back in the orphanage until she stopped crying.

'Speaking of orphanage, I should check in on them some other time.'

Yet another to-do added into the list, it was piling up significantly. Looking around he sees that they were in some mountain with a cottage near them. That must be the safe house that they were supposed to protect. The area was warded with multiple Notice-Me-Not wards, Silencing wards, and is under a Fidelius Charm that makes it kinda impenetrable.

Their stuff was already in the safe house, courtesy of Greengrass House's House Elves, they were such useful creatures, so they just took a few minutes to enter the safe house without any problems.

The cottage was 2 stories tall with what seemed to be extension charms casted to the house since the interior was much larger than the exterior build. There was the living room, a kitchen area, bathrooms, a storeroom, a room downstairs, and a total of 4 rooms on the second floor.

"You and I are staying in this room, as the first line of defence."

Edwin says to him who just nodded as he entered his room while he and the rest went to the second floor to instruct them their sleeping areas.

There were beds, tables, and cabinets in the room on the left and right with a shower and toilet opposite the room's door to the hallway. Examining the cabinets to make sure which side of the room was his, he noted that Edwin didn't have much in his cabinet.

Sure enough, his stuff was on the cabinet at his side of the room. Ammunition for his Glock, books about Combat spells and other magic that he was learning at the side, and clothing from both the Wizardry and Mundane world.

Placing his box of ammunition and his books on the table, he makes sure that his gun was loaded and on safety once more, sliding the slider back to check, before walking out of the room to find that the group was still upstairs.

Waiting for them to come down, he starts his normal magic and multitasking exercise in a couch in the living room, the same one he did while waiting for Charles and Aria back in the Bar but whistling and singing softly to Michael Jackson's Billie Jeans instead now.

"She was more like a beauty queen, From a movie scene."

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