Chapter 132

C 132

"So how's Heather been overall since you've taken her in?" I asked the Ancient One.

She took another sip of her tea. "Hmmm. She has been good. I've repaired the damage she had from that leech in her forehead. Some healing rituals have brought her physically back up to where a 15-year-old girl should be. She's also been taking to her magical studies fervently. She's a prodigy, actually."

I smiled at hearing all that. "That's great!"

She continued. "The only issue is that she seems lonely right now. She's the only child we have studying here. We don't take students under 18 usually. Her circumstances were special, of course."

I nodded at that. I told the Ancient One that I'd recently sort of taken in two teenage girls as well and that I was planning to enroll them in a high school.

The Ancient One seemed intrigued. "That's a good idea. Hogwarts as an institution…is terrible. It doesn't prepare its students for anything useful in life at all. I mean, what kind of careers can you make from transforming animals into goblets or levitating feathers?"

I always wondered that as well. Other than potions, none of the magic in Harry Potter ever actually seemed useful in job settings.

"I could get all three of the girls American identities if you would like?" She suggested.

I gave her a deadpan stare. "Your identity for me, last time, didn't work for a minor background check…"

The Ancient one had the gall to look embarrassed at least. "I apologize for that. It seems we sorcerers are behind the times when it comes to technology."

"You guys at least have wifi. That's a start!" I said jokingly. I'd be asking Tony to make them all identities though. Or Andrea I supposed. Both of them had Jarvis's that could easily create a few SSNs.

…

I made sure to properly say goodbye to Heather before I left the sanctum. I told her I was heading back over to magical Britain to see if I could scrounge up any leads on the Death Eaters. Heather wanted me to check in on her friends to see if they were alright. She was worried that the Death Eater's might go after them out of spite. Which was a justifiable worry. 

She gave me the general location for The Burrow. When I asked her what Hermione's address was, Heather looked embarrassed and told me she didn't actually know. She always just asked her owl to send her letters directly to Hermione… Although she did tell me that Hermione spent most of her time at the Burrow anyway. Apparently the girl and her parents didn't get along.

I opened up a portal towards Diagon Alley. When I emerged, I drew some attention from people nearby, but they soon lost interest. A woman stepping out of a dark purple portal wasn't that impressive for a Magical society, I suppose.

Although, not quite everyone. I saw a young teenage girl who was clearly muggle-born, judging by the way she was dressed. When she saw me her eyes lit up and she rushed over towards me. She practically begged me for a picture and autograph. The group of friends she was with were looking at the girl strangely. They did not appear to know who I was. They all looked like they had been raised solely in the magical world. It was odd, just how uninformed of world news the people who solely lived in the magical world were.

"Here you go." I said as I handed the girl back her parchment that I had signed. She held it close to her chest and squealed in excitement before she ran back to her friends.

I laughed when I heard them talking about me as I walked away. 

"Who was that, Josephine?"

"What? That was the Angel Layla! A real Angel! The one who drove away Voldemort in Monaco!"

"You're weird, Josephine… Angels aren't real. And the Dark Lord was beaten by all these muggles in the Alley. The dumb muggles then made all the Goblins leave and take all of our money with them!"

It seemed that news of my fight with Voldemort at Gringotts had been suppressed or just edited. I didn't particularly mind. It also seemed like SHIELD was being blamed for the Goblin's leaving the British Wizarding World as well. Even though it was the wizard's who pushed them too far. The Wizarding World always had a big fake news problem.

I took a proper look around the Alley. One of the first things I noticed was all the people. The alley was filled with witches and wizards, unlike the last time I was here. All of the graffiti disparaging Muggleborns had also been cleaned up. There were also armed soldiers who could only be SHIELD agents keeping guard scattered around. A few of them noticed me and approached.

"Layla of the Fallen, MAM! I am Agent Ryles! I'm in charge of keeping the Alley secure and out of the terrorists' hands!" The man exclaimed while giving me a salute. The two other agents behind him saluted me as well. They were all clearly ex-military from how professionally they were acting.

I giggled and saluted them back playfully. "Good work. I came to check up on Magical Britain. How have things been in the Alley? Have any Death Eaters returned to try and take back the Alley?" 

"W–well that's…" Agent Ryles looked reluctant to answer. "We don't know, mam.

"We have been having some problems, but we don't know if it's Death Eaters. Agent Ryles said. 

"What do you mean?"

Ryles grimaced. "Some of our soldiers have been disappearing from their patrols, here in the Alley, only to turn up a few hours later in random spots in London. What's more is that these soldiers are completely missing their memories of the past few months. Some of them are even missing whole years!" Ryles said while clenching his fist angrily. "One of my friends lost 3 years of memories and now he doesn't even remember his wife or infant son."

"That sounds horrible!" I exclaimed. Some magicals were ambushing the SHIELD agents and obliviating them? This didn't seem like Death Eaters either because they just plain weren't smart enough to pull something like this off. I wouldn't put it past the ambushers to be interrogating the agents beforehand either. Mind reading was as simple as a spell in the wizarding world. Harry Potter was able to use the Leglimins spell first try against Snape so it can't even be that difficult.

[Quest Initiated! Find the Magicals harassing the SHIELD soldiers! Put a stop to them!]

Reward: Level Up +1

Judging by the small reward, this quest shouldn't be that particularly difficult. 

"I'm not sure if I can heal people with missing memories, but if not, I know someone who can help those Agents." I told the three of them and they all looked relieved after I spoke. "Also, someone has been spreading fake news about SHIELD around here. Know anything about that? I listened in on a group of girls earlier and most of them are blaming you all for the Goblin's leaving." I added. 

The three of them grimaced before one of them pulled out a wizard newspaper. On the front page was a very graphic picture of SHIELD agents fighting, and killing, Death Eaters in the battle of Diagon Alley. The article was titled: THE MUGGLES HAVE FOUND US! INNOCENT PUREBLOODS MURDERED IN DIAGON ALLEY! →By Rita Skeeter…

I facepalmed… 

XXX

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