Chapter Text
“So what are we waiting for?” The newest auror on the team had the sort of anxious energy that placed a sign on his forehead declaring he was untested in the field. Tonks hid a grin in response. Seeing people who hadn’t spent the last year working for the order of the Phoenix reacting to the idea of war was depressingly amusing.
“Wait and see, mate, or Moody will go all,” Tonks shifted her face to look like his, “Pipe down.”
“Pipe down,” the real Moody echoed in a cross voice. “One of the death eaters we’re after is an American, so bloody MacUSA is sending one of their Enforcer teams.” He snorted. “Busybodies.”
Tonks sat up straight, her features returned to normal. “Wait, which one?”
“I didn’t ask.” He made a face at her in annoyance. “Kestrel somebody.”
“Kestrele?” Tonks laughed and kicked her feet. “I’m pretty sure it’s McNully now. But that means Lia too!”
“Wait, you know them?” The new auror looked doubtful.
“Uh, yes.” Tonks opened her mouth to continue and then paused as the door opened.
The three women that walked into the room had an air of intensity only slightly diffused by the glee with which Tonks reacted to their presence. The leader was tall to a degree that the young man standing by the door looked tiny. Chaotic hair was restrained in a tail, its hue so white it nearly radiated moonlight. She strode into the room, hands in her pockets, with an expression of cold certainty. The woman to her left mirrored the expression. Dark hair and light eyes, she seemed to read and judge the room at a glance. The third had hair as white as her companion, but that was where the similarities ended. She was shorter by a good amount, and where the others looked stern, she looked ready to break into a laugh or a song, pale green eyes sparkling.
Their clothing matched, a modernized version of a French revolutionary uniform under a coat that an American mobster in the 1920s would have favored. Compared to the basic brown trenchcoats that British aurors wore, they just seemed more official.
Their leader walked up to Moody, eye to eye and very nearly his height. She offered her hand to shake, thumb and two smallest fingers exposed and the rest covered in a professional duelist’s leather glove. “Kyriel McNully.” He shook her hand and nodded.
“Alastor Moody.” He frowned. “I’ll have you know I’m not thrilled about this. MacUSA has no jurisdiction here, and your reputation as the Black Wands precedes you.”
Kyriel shrugged one shoulder. “We’re just here to extradite Jackson. If you’d already caught him, we wouldn’t have had to meet you in the field.”
“Well I’m glad you’re here!” Tonks jumped down from her perch and gave Ophelia a huge hug. “Wotcher, Lia, I haven’t seen you in ages!”
Lia laughed and hugged her old friend back. “Ages, hunh? So that wasn’t you at the wedding last month?”
“Ah, you got me.” She slung an arm around Lia’s shoulders and waved at the third member of their group. “Hey Orin!”
The dark haired woman cracked a smile. “Hey Tonks. Get into any mischief lately?”
“Nah, I’ve been on the straight and narrow path lately!”
“I’ll believe that when I see it.” Lia looked past her to where Moody and Kyrr were discussing the team up. The British auror was keeping his temper in check despite his frustrations, Kyriel’s calm, almost bored tone getting under his skin. “Think he’ll throw us out?”
“Nah. The ministry won’t admit it, but they’re grateful for the extra help. We’ve been hunting this group off and on for three weeks, they always give us the slip.” Tonks followed Lia’s gaze. “Is Kyrr okay? She seems kind of intense. She’s a newlywed, she should be happy.”
“Oh she’s fine.” Orin snickered. “She just gets like this when she’s working. You should see her working with her uncle, they’re downright creepy side by side.”
The not-quite-argument concluded as the two leads shook hands again, and Kyrr walked back over to the others. “Its settled. Ministry has point on this but we’re free to act if things go sideways.” For the first time since they walked in, Kyriel smiled at Tonks. “Hey Prankster. No big guy today?”
Tonks blushed a shade of pink that had nothing to do with her abilities as a metamorphmagus. “He’s fine. Just, ah. Full moon.”
“Rough break.” Ophelia smiled as Orin made two quick hand motions, and responded by making a full hand pinching motion at her mouth. Orin grinned and shook her head; Kyrr suppressed a laugh. “Anyway, good luck out there.”
+++
The joint operation was a planned raid on a storehouse where a small band of dark wizards were holed up. Rumors had placed the American wizard Mortimer Jackson and three others in the vicinity, a cell attached to a larger group of dark wizards based in the USA. They were wanted for kidnappings, several muggleborn children having gone missing shortly after their first display of magic.
The UK, with its long history of wizards and muggles crossing, had a higher than average number of children that could be found and taken.
Kyriel, Ophelia, and Orin were nowhere to be seen as the British aurors surrounded the building. They entered through the rear doors, Moody in the lead. Several minutes later four dark wizards burst out through a hidden side door into an alleyway, and raced towards the south end. A crow swooped through the air over their heads, and a white haired woman appeared in front of them, wand out. Another taller one appeared behind them at the same moment, and both cast in unison.
“Anchorius!!” The spell burst over the black robed men. Their leader attempted to apparate away, then let out a blistering curse as the spell failed. They focused their wands on the woman in front of them blocking the exit to the alleyway, but she vanished, the spells passing through the air where she had been. They took off on foot, the other woman hot on their heels.
It became a game of cat and mouse, and the British aurors caught up in pursuit as Jackson and his companions left the wizarding part of the city and crossed onto muggle turf. The four men bolted for a large, unmarked building and shoved their way past the large door guard as people lined up along the wall shouted in protest. The heavy beat of deafening music escaped through the opening.
Moody pulled up short and swore, the MacUSA girls one step ahead. “We can’t go in there. Too many muggles. Too dangerous.”
Kyriel took a step forward, looking at the building. “Rin? How long left on anchorius?”
“Three minutes. This is their MO. Human shields.”
Kyrr nodded. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her wand, tossing it in the air to tumble end over end like a coin flip. She caught it by the handle and started to walk forward, arm and wand swishing out in an arc as a fencer would flourish a rapier. Orin fell into perfect step beside her.
Moody ground his teeth together. “This is an order. Do not go in there!”
Lia walked a bit behind the other two, and spun around with a sheepish grin. “Watch us.” She spun forward again and drew her wand. Kyrr pushed her way past the bouncer with Orin on her heels, and before the flustered guard could react, Lia let out a song-songy, “Obliviaaaate!” He and those waiting in line blinked, their memories suddenly muddled and the three women forgotten.
From the other side of the road, Tonks whistled in appreciation as Moody put in a call for backup and cleanup, fully expecting a mess.
+++
The beat of the club music was loud enough that Kyrr knocked her hearing aid to half power, then looked around the huge open space full of sweaty people dancing and jumping. She frowned and looked at Orin. “Ideas?”
“We need a distraction. Something to make them stand out from the dancers.” Orin looked up at the catwalks that ran around the club.
Kyrr flashed a feral grin. “Lia? Make it rain.”
Ophelia laughed and pointed her wand up, sending a gust of super hot air into the sprinklers. A moment later, the fire suppression system came on, and water poured down on the overheated crowd. Kyrr lifted her wand toward the DJ and cast the Imperious curse. For a moment everyone stopped moving in confusion as the music paused and water rained down.
And then the DJ dropped the bass.
The crowd went absolutely wild, dancing like there was no tomorrow. Orin ducked below eyeline and shifted into her crow form, shooting up through the artificial rain to position herself on the catwalks. She looked down over the crowd, then to her two companions. She signed one ahead and to the left, going for the emergency exit. One on the other side of the room. Two dead ahead, Jackson is almost to the back rooms. She pointed out their relative positions.
Kyriel nodded and signed back other side and pointed, then looked at Ophelia, who had also watched the message. “Exit guy. Go make a friend.” She started forward directly into the crowd, dropping into her animagus form and weaving easily through the chaos.
Lia grinned happily and took off along the wall. She cast an illusion spell of herself and broke off from her duplicate, shifting into her own cat form and racing to cut the dark wizard off. He kept looking back as her illusionary self pursued him, inadvertently slowing himself down. He finally stopped and turned to draw his wand on her, rage on his face. “Avada ka-”
“-nope.” Behind him, Lia returned to her natural form and tapped him on the shoulder with her wand. “Imperio.” The man paused, expression dreamy. “Now, go sit by the exit like a good boy until we come to collect you.” She left him to wander over under his own power, and headed into the crowd to back up her friends.
Orin dropped down from the catwalks in her crow form, and shifted back practically under her quarry’s feet. He startled, off balance, and Orin hit him with a knockback jinx. She followed it up with Petrificus Totalus and then sat him up, grabbed the back of his robes, and dragged him towards the others.
In the center of the room, Kyrr chased down the closest wizard; his black coat and lack of dancing made him stand out from the scantily clad gyrations around them. She caught up, and flashed out her long, sharp claws to slide across his ankle, skidding past as he yelped and hopped on one foot. He aimed his wand at the ground, looking for the cat, and completely missed the shape that formed into a tall woman beside him. At least until the stupify spell turned out his lights. He collapsed, and the dancers moved out of the way as they would if any one of their number succumbed to the heat or substances running rampant through the club.
Kyrr crouched down to make sure he was alright, then stood. She didn’t see as Jackson materialized out of the crowd behind her, wand up. She turned her head just in time to see a wand directly in her face, as a voice under a black hood snarled “Avada Kedavra!”
Nothing happened. The dark wizard looked at his wand, then Kyrr, who nodded to her right. His head turned to see Ophelia, smirking, water streaming off her soaked silvery hair. She had her wand extended, and was using Orin’s specially crafted “nullius” spell to create a bubble of dead magic around him. He looked forward again and Kyrr’s grin turned manic.
She punched him dead center in his face hard enough to loosen teeth. He staggered back and she grabbed the front of his robes before he could leave the dead magic zone, ducked under as she grabbed his arm and used his own weight to throw him to the floor in a huge splash. Kyrr dropped down on him and cast stupify the muggle way, pummeling the dark right out of the wizard.
Orin walked over, wand aloft as she cast a broad confundus charm to keep the dancers around them from seeing what was going on. Lia backed it up with an obliviate for the few who had already seen evidence of a fight. Kyrr finally stood up and shook her hand, looking around her and nodding in satisfaction at the excellent crowd control. She grabbed the two felled wizards by their collars, and all three women made their way to the emergency exit, still in a bubble of confundus.
Lia hit the exit door with a disabling spell to prevent the alarm going off, and opened it for her team, holding it open till everyone including her imperiused wizard were through. They walked into the nearest alley, where they were met by Moody and what felt like half the ministry’s aurors.
“What the bloody hell were you thinking?!” Moody was in a fine fury. “Do you have any idea how many people might have been killed? Now we have to clean up your mess…” he trailed off as he realized that all four wizards were either unconscious or incapacitated, with their leader’s face looking like he had a run in with a cursed cricket bat.
“Nothing to clean up,” Orin said mildly as a pair of aurors took the man she was dragging. “Confundus and obliviate. All anyone will remember is the night that the sprinklers went off during a musical number. We’re reckless, not stupid.”
Lia nodded as she squeezed water out of her hair. “We’re good at this. There’s a reason we got our nickname. It’s no curse breaking, but it pays the bills,” she added in a joking tone.
Kyrr shook her head, splashing people around her like a dog. She reached up to adjust her hearing aid for the lower volume surroundings, and looked at Moody. “We just did what we came here to do. We apprehended Jackson. No Muggles harmed, no one escaped, and no casualties.” A groan escaped the battered dark wizard, and she shrugged. “Close enough.”
“This is the last time I work with an American,” Moody muttered, and gestured for the team to wrap up as he stomped off.
Tonks grinned madly and shook her head. “You don’t know him like I do. He’s impressed.”
“How can you tell?” Lia raised a brow. A moment later an auror came over to the soaked women, towels in his arms.
Tonks grinned. “Oh, there’s ways.”