Chapter Text
Another day, another group of customers waiting for her. Amelia Prinn opened the heavy curtains with a soft movement and let everyone in. They were all so excited, they usually were when it comes to visit her store. She had a huge quantity of memorabilia, little figurines that make everyone forget their problems and just get lost in the inmensity of the details and the intricate movements of every single one of the astonishing objects. It always made her happy to see the effect they had in people. Her father would be proud. Time passes so slow… if only there was something else to distract her. She sighed and continued her work. Little did she know that today she was going to experience a different and unexpected event.
It happened during her last working hour. The last customer left and she lowered the curtains to prepare for leaving. She heard a noise that made her turn so abruptly that she even felt a slight pain in her neck. It was as if something (or someone) fell right in the center of the shop. She just stood there for a good five minutes before regaining the strength in her legs. She looked around in order to find the source of the sound, but there was nothing there. How was it possible? It was so strange. And then she felt it… a presence. She stood motionless, trying to catch any sound or movement.
Closing her eyes she tried to imagine her store and remember where everything was… a mental image. And something happened that almost made her fell to the ground. She felt how something warm and pulsing was flowing from her and sweeping every single corner of the place. It was like an energy wave, but how? She opened her eyes and saw with surprise that the energy wave she was imagining was clearly visible… and then she felt something again. It was as if the energy was concentrated in a single point, so she went to check it and found a small ball. Curious as she was, she prod it with the tip of her shoe and it rolled slow and heavily. Seeing that it was indeed something material, she gently lift it from the floor.
It was heavy, but somehow it felt light at the same time. It was warm and made her fingers tingle softly.
"What in the world…?" she examined it and put it in an open box next to her desk and stood there watching it.
At the same time, miles away, a very busy Hermione Granger was finishing the last details of the complicated paper she was preparing. She had been working tirelessly for about a year now, but was extremely happy with the result. Everyone knows that she can´t be disturbed when she´s working on her projects, so there were no invitations waiting for her and no unwanted visitors to distract her. Now that she was free, she would have the time to focus on other things, and even though she just finished with a very demanding task, her mind was inmediately suggesting new and unknown mysteries to unfold... “there is so much to learn and discover!”, she says when her friends tell her that she should do other things.
She was very relaxed thinking about fascinating topics to study like the nature of Dementors, Patronuses and several magical objects when she felt something strange. It was like a soft pull in the middle of her stomach. Similar to when she walks reading eagerly and misses a step in the stairs. What was that uneasy feeling? She stood up and looked around, but nothing seemed strange. The feeling ended as abruptly as it had started, leaving her wondering about it. An hour passed and she was still frowning and deep in thought when a loud pop was hear outside her door. The urgent knock startled her.
"Come in!" she said in a short breath
"Miss Granger!" it was Stanley, the director of the Department of Mysteries. His eyes shining with something similar to a contained emotion.
"Hello Stanley. What brings you here?"
"Are you working on any project right now?" he asked looking around at her office, full of loose parchments and half-empty ink bottles.
"I have just finished my paper and was thinking about my next adventure" she said with proud.
"Excellent! I think I can help with that," he said at the same time that he started looking for something inside his robes.
He found a big envelope and handed it to her. She took it and opened it with curiosity. What would the department of mysteries want with her? As she read it, her face started to blush with excitement. It was an incredibly rare mystery, something she had been looking for in a long time.
The event happened in a muggle neighbourhood with no wizard community nearby. The urgency is to find the source of the burst of magic and identify if there is any risk to the muggle community living there. After that, it´s necessary to classify it accordingly; who is the responsible for such magical outburst? What was the need and the effect of it?...
"This looks quite interesting, to be honest. Are you sure this was in a muggle community?"
"Yes, and there are no children of school age around, so the possibility of raw magic presenting itself for the first time must come from another source. We need to know if there was someone apparating there and performing magic, if that was the case, who was it and why?"
"That really is fascinating. But if I may ask, why me? I know there are lots of trained aurors and officers that could manage that task easily," she said with complete honesty.
"Your extense understanding in muggle society makes you the first option for this task in particular. Since the mission involves to mingle with the muggle community living there, it is of utmost importance to maintain the secrecy. And, as you know, many of our assets are not too good at keeping up appearances…" he said this last part in a kind of chuckle, but then looked at her with a serious look. She knew perfectly well the problems that can emerge when a wizard or witch is not careful around muggles.
"I understand. It´s been a while since my last field job. Please tell your department that I will do everything in my power to get answers."
Stanley left with a smile and a nod. She sit in her comfy chair and read carefully all of the information about the event. It was at the same time as the strange feeling she had earlier, were they related? If so, what was it? Her head full of thoughts and her guts rebelled with joy at knowing that there was a new mission.