\u201cHello sweetheart\u201d, Arthur addressed Crookshanks the cat who got up from his bed under the portrait of Sirius, stretched, yawned and came to meet him. \u201cStill miss your friend?\u201d, he looked at Sirius, as the cat rubbed his head on his leg and he kneeled down to pet him. \u201cYou\u2019re a good boy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello Lyra\u201d, he stood up and looked at the young woman who came to greet him. \u201cIt\u2019s so nice to see you\u201d, he hugged her. \u201cIs Hermione all right?\u201d, he whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s fine. Somewhat shaken, but nothing more. Come, see for yourself\u201d, she led him to the couch where Hermione rose up to greet him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello Arthur\u201d, she smiled as he embraced her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so worried when I saw the news\u201d, they sat down as Lyra went to get them tea and biscuits.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did they let you go there all alone?\u201d, he pulled fingers through his hair.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, here\u2019s the thing. We didn\u2019t know what we\u2019ll find. We knew they were smugglers. We knew they moved stolen goods to and from that location. We knew the hut was protected against remote viewing and apparition. We knew there\u2019s several of them, and we decided to send an Auror to be safe, rather than risk ordinary magical police force. You see, smugglers who have a shielded base in the middle of nowhere rather than somewhere in town is already a red flag. There were things there that they didn\u2019t want seen, and that could be anything. What we didn\u2019t know was that they weren\u2019t smugglers \u2013 they were murderers who used smuggling to get money\u201d, she nodded. \u201cSo, our hunch to send an Auror to deal with mere smuggling ended up being justified. Unfortunately, the problem was still worse than we suspected, much worse, and I was initially overwhelmed\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy you, of all people?\u201d, Arthur wondered.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019m a new Auror and what better way for me to get used to the work, than go on a job that looked barely worth sending an Auror for?\u201d, she laughed. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t supposed to be dangerous. What else was I supposed to do? Guard Azkaban?\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I guess not\u201d, he agreed. \u201cBut\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did I miss it and put my sister in harm\u2019s way?\u201d, Lyra offered, as she brought refreshments. \u201cThat\u2019s the thing with shielding. You don\u2019t know what\u2019s being shielded. I had to guess based on the sort of crime that\u2019s being committed \u2013 theft of imported goods from a warehouse, selling it on the black market. Not exactly terrible. We hardly even deal with small fry like that in the office, and forward it to the ordinary law enforcement. However, there was something weird about this one. Their base was too remote to make economical sense. Too large travel distance. Also, too much shielding, of too great power and sophistication. They usually never bother; they assume nobody will look, and if they get caught they try to get away quickly and abandon the goods. Shielding against apparition isn\u2019t something you do to protect imported cauldrons and invisibility cloaks. You do it to protect something really important. So, we decided to deal with it ourselves, and Hermione volunteered because she was bored and wanted to finally do something\u201d, she smiled. \u201cHad I known, I\u2019d send Viktor with her, which would make it much harder for criminals to overwhelm them initially, and she\u2019d likely not have to resort to her last line of defence, which was to use space to crush them\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read about them being liquified\u201d, Arthur looked questioningly. \u201cWhat did you do to them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI touched magic directly, and saw them as four dim lights around me, and since I was under a full body-bind curse, I couldn\u2019t move my eyes to target them visually I had to rely on that, and I touched space with magic on all four dim lights at once, and crushed and swirled. I later looked up and didn\u2019t find anything about that in magical literature, and then I tried Muggle literature. They describe space doing terrible things like that in the context of astrophysics \u2013 objects of enormous mass like neutron stars and black holes that produce a gravity well with a very steep gradient, specifically a quickly rotating massive object that also introduces extreme angular momentum on a steep gradient, like a very fast rotating neutron star, or a Kerr black hole\u201d. She saw that they are looking at her with eyes glazed over and mouths open. \u201cAnyway, I fortunately contained the effect to them specifically because had that extended outside them, it could have easily killed me and destroyed everything there\u201d, she finished.<\/p>\n
Lyra managed to get her bearings first. \u201cSo, basically, the differences in density of space and differences in its rotational speed tore every part of them from every other part of them, and continued to do it until they were liquid, or close enough\u201d, she explained it to Arthur.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t that hard to do when you\u2019re surprised and petrified on the floor?\u201d, he wondered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, in fact it\u2019s the easiest thing to do\u201d, Hermione explained. \u201cIt\u2019s like pressing a button on an onion blender\u201d. She saw his confusion. \u201cA muggle device that works on electricity. It has a motor that turns a knife that spins in circle in a jar and cuts onions into small fragments when you press the button\u201d. He nodded. \u201cAnyway, I contained, crushed and swirled, came out of deep magic, saw what became of them, called Lyra and threw up\u201d, she smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow did you call her?\u201d, Arthur wondered.<\/p>\n
She tapped her wrist, and a red circle showed up on both her and Lyra\u2019s wrists. \u201cWe made this to keep in touch when the babies were very little, so that one of us can go to work and the other one could notify her when they are awake. Lyra was exploring Voldemort\u2019s dark mark, and this is technically similar, but much more sophisticated. You can tap it and it glows, tap it twice and it starts blinking, which notifies us that babies are up, or you can tap and talk and it functions as a muggle radio, so we can talk to each other at a distance. It turned out to be so useful, we left it there even when it wasn\u2019t needed, because it now allows me to call my boss for reinforcements when I\u2019m in over my head\u201d, she smiled blissfully at her sister. \u201cAnd when you\u2019re done, you do this\u201d. She stroked over the circle with her palm and it went off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s amazing magic\u201d, Arthur was in awe. \u201cWhich one of you made it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of us\u201d, Lyra smiled. \u201cWe talked about what we wanted, and since it\u2019s the kind of a spell that requires consent, we both just figured it out together as we held hands\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you connect to other people with the same thing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn theory, but in practice we don\u2019t want to. We thought about it but we just don\u2019t want to give other people the ability to pull our strings or disrupt us. It\u2019s just between the two of us because we decided we wanted to stay connected when we are apart\u201d, Hermione smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the Dark Mark inspired a baby alarm\u201d, he laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least something good came of it\u201d, Lyra snickered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cHello sweetheart\u201d, Arthur addressed Crookshanks the cat who got up from his bed under the portrait of Sirius, stretched, yawned and came to meet him. \u201cStill miss your friend?\u201d, he looked at Sirius, as the cat rubbed his head on … Continue reading