Meeting

"How was it?" Luca asked Ringo standing cautiously in the cage, tail gripping the bars, limbs stretched to provide support for staying in place, ready to brave the washing machine treatment for the fourth time they traveled together by Floo so far.

"Meow." the cat stretched himself and looked at his back to check for anything missing, then patted the bottom to have the boy get him out. After Luca opened the cage, Ringo jumped off outside tempted by the aromas overpowering even the enchantment of black-hole doors to keep the spaces separated, the boy hurried after seeing Bryce waving his hand from over the fireplace adjacent to the exit.

Going out into the familiar dirt paths winding around the rotten shacks where wizards and a dozen kinds of intelligent magical creatures could buy or barter whatever they needed, Bryce proposed to go grab ice cream in a row of carts purposely awaiting kids' exit from Ilvermorny right in front of the Floo Point to make money off of them, the boys sat down on the side of the road and observed the family drama when the parents awaiting their children in a sufficiently dense crowd, to make even the enchanted to ever-expand roads seem not enough for the thousands of bystanders, looked over the school reports their precious babies earned this year.

"You got D from Charms?! And Transfiguration?! Let me engrave on your skin how to use them!" one pissed-off dad yanked out his wand and transformed his own robe into a solid leather belt, luckily for the onlookers they were spared the sight of his naked beer belly as he had a t-shirt and sweatpants under it, the second wave of the wand making the belt chase his son whipping his buttocks from left to right as the boy cried while speeding off the distance.

"It's not my fault, the teachers have it for me, I swear, ouch! One or two accidentally missed spells, and they can't get, ahh, over it for a year!" the explanation accentuated by loud slaps and screams of pain went away, the scolding of other students ongoing.

"How can you not have A+ from potions when mom is a supplier for 'Narfi's Apothecary'?!" a woman screamed at her daughter that looked annoyed.

"Those smelly goos and dried excrements can screw off, I won't touch the filth, sue me!" she fought back having had enough living in a warehouse for disgusting ingredients most of her life.

"You have gloves and a bubblehead curse, don't you know how good the salary is?! Who bought everything you ever wanted?!" Mom argued that her job wasn't bad, but the girl was not buying it, things were looking like a stalemate, so Luca's head turned to focus on another family.

"Good enough I guess, why no A+ from anything again?" a couple with three siblings studied their children's cards and came to the conclusion they deserved a reward sat down at a table near the boys and ordered five giant banana sundaes, the owner of the stand waving his stick like a conductor to keep up with the business.

"Pointless effort." the oldest one grumbled, his younger sisters nodded in agreement.

"Stop demoralizing your sisters, why can't you try with one subject you like?" his mother rolled her eyes having heard the same excuse for five years already.

"Tired." the teenager replied, his sisters nodding again as they ate their desserts with small spoons, the parents looked at each other helplessly and also started eating. As the boys finished their cones, Luca took lemon and pistachio, Bryce vanilla and toffee, and started going to the Inn, Luca picked up a subject he just thought about having witnessed the coin exchanges between wizards.

"What do you think is a month's salary for, let's say, our teachers?" Luca wondered having received three hundred Galleons in rewards over the year, the amount of gold he approximated worth millions. Turning sideways to look at Bryce, from the corner of his eye, Luca could see a slim black cat sitting in the middle of a table and casting a tearful look at the food of some teenage girl and her mother, he decided to keep the sight in mind and don't feed his disloyal pet today.

"Fifty? We get three hundred for yearly expenses, food, and so on guaranteed, it's reasonable to range from fifty Galleons to two hundred for a wizard's low to medium competency positions." Bryce had to think for a while to estimate. "It is pretty arbitrary, right? I can't guess how those Knuts translate to dollars at all, we paid eight bronze coins, two per scoop, but it can't be one-to-one, and it's eight twenty-ninths of Sickle…" with Bryce confused as he put one of his hands forward and tried to calculate the value on his fingers, the boys passed the uniformed in red forest trolls guarding the entrance to Vilemyr Inn, the opulent golden interior and the Veelas on duty welcomed them warmly, especially Luca they instantly mobbed and tried to hug, the boy had to dodge the enthusiastic ladies he got acquainted with because of his fame as the domino effect started with fairies changed a couple more antiquated laws in favour of protection of magical creatures. Bryce sighed with envy and went forward ignored, while Luca got caught obediently when the ladies turned into harpies and flew nimbly to surround him from ground and air, the escape unlikely to be successful every day as he had to come sleep in his room.

Dizzy boy got out eventually, wiping his face of lipstick traces inside the elevator, he wondered how to disguise himself to rid of the attention. Passers-by pointed at him from the moment he came out of the building, some took out his picture from the quidditch game and laughed at it unscrupulous. If not for the crowd to await their children after half a year of separation, Luca was sure he wouldn't be able to walk normally. Going absentmindedly to his room, he didn't even notice two wizards wearing all-black robes with the MACUSA logo over their chests flanking the door until one of them spoke in a deep voice.

"Granger, Luca?" the startled boy threw his briefcase at the source of the sound, hitting the man straight in his head if not for a transparent white barrier that flashed and prevented it from possibly knocking some teeth off his mouth. The speechless officials watched the boy jump backward and fumble to fall as he hit the wall, then got up rapidly his face smeared with patches of red lipstick now turned in its entirety even redder.

"Ye, ehem, yes." Luca tried to keep a straight face and look seriously at the asking man's eyes, the tears of pain that gathered in his ruby eyes the other flaw besides the colourful expression.

"'Tergeo.'" the other wizard took out his wand and waved it twice, first one disposed of the traces on Luca's face, second straightened his clothes completely disheveled from the squeezing he went through.

"Thanks." the boy muttered under his breath, the first wizard in the meantime took out a parchment stamped with wax and bent over to throw Luca's baggage inside the open door, then closed it.

"You are required to attend a meeting with Minister Lopez as quickly as possible, here's the warrant." the man explained handing the parchment to the boy that automatically started reading, it was written elegantly and full of formal phrases, like 'required cooperation with the holder of the letter to make sure Luca Granger arrives safely in front of me', which suggested the Minister wrote it herself.

"Why?" Luca had only one question on his mind, the reason not stated anywhere, he even tried flipping the page to see if he missed something in the unusual blue lighting with sporadic flashes of gold illuminating the corridor.

"We don't know, come kid." the second man put his arm over Luca's neck and pushed the boy gently back from where he came from, Luca's mind racing if he unknowingly broke some wizarding laws, but it didn't seem he did anything out the ordinary lately. This could be a late revenge of the Berbat family, he figured out the only thing way back that had a chance to be the reason for his summon. Going out of the elevator to the sight of the globe in the atrium covered by the body of a frowning, bald Mr. Grimsditch with a pipe in his mouth standing there blocking the way, Luca's guards tensed and bowed quickly, their sight lowered.

"Do you want to spend your life as a frog with wiped-out memories or intact?" the irritated old wizard said, his grey eyes scanning all three men before him.

"Sir, we follow orders." the wizard holding Luca's shoulder took back his hand hastily.

"To try take a student out of my Inn without telling me or his mentor, Agilbert? It's not me turning you into frogs." Grimsditch sneered and made a gesture of stepping aside. "Come on, I dare you." the scene froze like that, Luca had a guess if he was getting kidnapped even if the letter, uniforms, and behaviour rather match what he has so far seen of MACUSA style.

"No, the Minister is simply impolite to you, me, and Fontaine." the old wizard stood there exhaling puff after puff of smoke for a minute as the four men stood there deadlocked, Luca's inward complaint that his thoughts are getting read again passed without comment. Suddenly, the floor below the boy moved twisting into vines that entangled his guards that didn't even attempt to move since seeing Mr. Grimsditch awaiting them, until the vines covered their entire lower bodies, after which a series of beams came for both of them deflected by a white transparent barrier. Luca looked at their resigned expressions puzzled, why not resist an obvious attack, is that the quality of government employees, until a beam finally turned them both into small guinea pigs lying down where they were, inside the cage of transfigured stone.

"Selina is too disgusting, I can't even vent turning her defenseless minions with any satisfaction!" a shout he didn't expect to hear for at least two months sounded in Luca's ears, confirming the obvious - his teacher came to join the fun. "Long time no see, we're heading to Woolworth for an explanation." Fontaine shook hands with his friends, the older wizard agreed with a simple word. Luca forgotten as he still stood there with his brows raised looking at their backs until his teacher waved a hand over his shoulder to sign him to follow, the boy had to jog to keep up with the steps of a duo.

"Good afternoon?" Luca said whatever to get attention, eager for some answers.

"Hello." both grandpas turned to look with their sharp gazes and threw a greeting back at him.

"Why am I in trouble with Minister?" Luca tried again after taking ten calming breaths.

"She wants to talk, so she will." Fontaine succinctly rebutted, the crowd slightly dispersed by now greeted Luca's guides as they went through, they both nodded left and right in response, none of their acquaintances went up as they seemed in a hurry.

"Woolworth!" the trio went up in flames one by one. The usual spin later, Luca opened his eyes to a floor covered in checkered white and red tiles, blue walls, and a dark ceiling with shining stars providing the light in a big closed room, another unique Floo Point he had the opportunity to check out. The hall was empty except for eight people, a five-man team of Aurors Fontaine chatted cordially with stationed at the exit, and Luca's trio that came over.

"...cushy job, but I can't get used to it. Maybe we should go out in a blaze together after all…" Luca overheard the head of the team with horrible burns making his or her face and raspy voice completely unrecognizable if they belong to a man or a woman or even the approximate age, complained because of getting relegated to the inspecting entrants' duty.

"Come to the bar later for a chat, we have something to do." Mr. Grimsditch beckoned Luca to come and stand with him, a curtain of water large enough to fit only two people walking through it at the same time suspended in the air in front of the exit and their station. Luca went through it as asked, then gave his wand, name, and purpose of visit while being scanned on a circular platform by a dozen golden and blueish vibrating antennas and spinning tops. Things considered normal, the Auror let him out of the room, the duo in front of him walking even faster the boy had no time to look around until they crossed several corridors, a staircase, and a miniature indoor garden guarded by two more Aurors that only nodded as they passed until reaching a rather simple white door that Luca's teacher opened without knocking.

"This is ridiculous, disband the ministry if you can't even deal with such a case without involving an underage wizard." he attacked the black-haired woman as she calmly stamped another parchment handed over by her assistant that stood under the window with a view over the twin towers of World Trade Center half-hidden in the smog. Reaching arguably the most important room and person in today's Wizarding World made Luca focus his attention solely on reading into the meaning of the Minister that sent for him, the tanned woman sat behind a heavy desk empty in the middle so Luca could see her legs folded ankle height, under the black robe on the upper body she seemed to wear a no-maj business suit, trousers, and simple high-heels.