Seemingly having encountered sothing completely incomprehensible and contrary to all her professional experience, Alia blinked her eyes vigorously in rapid succession, as if attempting to clear so obstruction from her vision.
Her face contorted in confusion as she wrinkled her nose. Leaning slightly closer to the line of small silver text, she brought her face within inches of the parchnt, her eyes scanning the magical lettering with intense scrutiny.
After several long monts of careful examination, during which she traced each letter with her eyes multiple tis to ensure absolute accuracy, she confird with growing bewildernt that she hadn't misread the ssage.
Alia made no direct outburst or fuss about her discovery. Instead, she reached for the quill pen that was inserted diagonally into the inkwell—one of the few personal items that occupied space on her organized office desk.
She dipped the quill into the black ink and quickly wrote a concise ssage on a slip of official ministry parchnt.
Having completed her written inquiry, this young woman who had graduated from the Ilvermorny School less than a year ago quietly rose from her chair. She moved approaching what appeared to be an ordinary Muggle microwave oven.
However, this was clearly no ordinary kitchen appliance.
Alia opened the microwave door and placed her handwritten note inside the chamber. She then turned the appropriate dial to select the correct departnt destination and pressed a red button. Accompanied by a brief flash of orange and gold flas, the note she had inserted vanished completely.
Although Bryan appeared to be engaged in polite conversation with Mrs. Hill, at least eighty percent of his attention was actually focused with intensity on the young assistant.
Due to Bryan's obvious interest, Remus was also secretly observing Alia with growing curiosity. Both n noticed every detail of Alia's actions with the device, and roughly guessed what she was doing, but neither pointed it out.
The reply ca quickly. Accompanied by a slight humming from the device, flas once again swept through the microwave's dark interior, and a piece of parchnt appeared out of thin air.
Alia opened the microwave door with sothing approaching eagerness, held the docunt up to the light, and read through its contents at lightning speed.
"Mandy—" Alia first glanced at Mr. Bryan Watson with slight bewildernt, then called out softly.
"What is it, Alia? Already finished with the processing?" Mrs. Hill asked with distracted enthusiasm that showed she was still far more interested in her conversation with the famous Bryan Watson than in the mundane details of immigration paperwork.
Without waiting for a response, she turned back toward Bryan and Remus with bright enthusiasm, clearly eager to continue singing the praises of her exceptional assistant.
"Alia is absolutely the most outstanding young witch I've ever had the privilege of working with in all my years with this departnt. It only took her a single week to understand and master all my procedures and protocols!
The previous assistant who held this position was, frankly speaking, sothing of a fool who required half a year of constant instruction and still couldn't manage to use the inter-departntal ssage communication system properly, despite repeated demonstrations and written instructions!"
"Mandy—" Alia interrupted softly, knowing that her superior had completely misunderstood the nature of her concern.
She raised the reply letter and Bryan's receipt form in her hand, looked restrainedly at Bryan Watson, who was casting a concerned glance her way.
"Perhaps you should look at this. They—"
Seeming to realize sothing had happened, Ms. Hill hurried over. She first picked up Bryan's entry receipt and began reading. With Alia's prompting, she quickly noticed where the problem lay.
"The Security Departnt wants to confiscate your wand, Mr. Watson?!" Mandy Hill's voice exploded with astonishnt and confusion, the words bursting from her lips as if she couldn't believe what she was actually seeing written in official magical ink before her very eyes.
"How could they possibly justify such an action? Oh, surely there must be so terrible mistake sowhere, Alia? Perhaps the wrong form was attached, or soone confused Mr. Watson's file?" She continued, her voice rising with each word as indignation began to override her initial shock.
Responding to her superior's desperate hope for a reasonable explanation, Alia tily stepped forward and handed over the official reply she had received from the Security Departnt.
"This is a certified copy of the Security Departnt's official filing docunt, issued directly by Mr. Graves himself," She said softly.
"The order requires Mr. Watson to surrender his wand imdiately upon entry to the United States and specifies that he must be accompanied by an authorized official escort at all tis during his stay."
Bryan raised an eyebrow, and Remus's expression also darkened.
Regarding the orders from the MACUSA Security Departnt that Alia had just relayed, they already knew about the first condition, but the second one—what did that an?
Was the MACUSA Security Departnt actually treating Bryan Watson, one of the most respected wizards of his generation, exactly like a dangerous criminal or suspected terrorist requiring constant monitoring?
Were they planning to keep Bryan Watson under surveillance?
"Outrageous!" Mrs. Hill exclaid with fury. She stared hard at the docunt, as if trying to find so trace of vomit on it to prove that the wizard who issued this docunt had drunk too much Firewhisky and was a bit addled. But after examination, everything was normal.
Remus frowned and stepped forward, preparing to say sothing, but Bryan raised his hand to stop him, smiling calmly.
"That's correct. We were inford in advance."
Alia and Mandy looked at each other, both finding it hard to believe.
Confiscation of wands and supervised entry, these were treatnts reserved entirely for criminals or criminal suspects. Yet Bryan Watson, with his current reputation, was actually willing to accept such harsh conditions?!
Not only did this treatnt seem completely inappropriate when applied to Bryan Watson himself, but even Mandy and Alia, despite being employees of MACUSA who generally supported their organization's policies and decisions, found it extrely difficult to accept that one of the most outstanding and heroic wizards of the current era should be subjected to such suspicious and disrespectful treatnt by their own governnt.
"This is absolutely absurd and completely unjustifiable!" Mrs. Hill shouted with passionate anger, her voice trembling with the force of her indignation as she began moving toward the modified microwave communication device with determined strides.
"I'm going to compose a formal protest note demanding an imdiate explanation for this outrageous decision. Just because the Graves family happens to wield overwhelming political influence within the Congressional power structure doesn't an they can simply ignore established legal precedents and constitutional protections.
Trask Graves has no legitimate authority to make such arbitrary decisions affecting the civil rights of visiting dignitaries, not even President Quahog himself would dare to overstep legal boundaries in such a blatant manner!"
"Trask Graves," Remus said softly, leaning close to Bryan's ear so that his words wouldn't be overheard by the two won. "He's the sa high-ranking official who has repeatedly rejected every single one of our sales permit applications over the past several months."
Bryan nodded slightly. He had already heard Remus ntion these matters several tis.
Alia looked at Bryan with indecision. Her superior's orders seed inviolable, but at the sa ti, she also agreed with Mandy's assertion that this had no legal basis whatsoever and constituted an "unlawful order."
"Thank you both very much for standing up for justice on my behalf—"
Bryan walked over and stopped Mandy from writing the note. He nodded his thanks to the two MACUSA officials he had t for the first ti and smiled warmly.
"Although I personally cannot understand the Security Departnt's decision, I believe they must have made this decision after careful consideration. Therefore, I believe Mr. Graves will not easily waver either."
This was sothing everyone understood clearly, but except for Bryan, everyone else felt indignant on his behalf.
After hesitating, Mandy said quietly, "I don't know what's really going on, Mr. Watson, but as I said, the Graves family was one of the original twelve founding families who followed President Josiah Jackson in establishing the Magical Congress. His family is very powerful within Congress, with the ability to control many key decisions. If you've co here hoping to accomplish sothing..."
"Thank you for the reminder," Bryan nodded.
Bryan's arm trembled slightly, and a wand fell into his palm. He held the wand out to Mandy and Alia.
Alia accepted Bryan's wand with a sowhat respectful expression, then walked to the filing cabinet behind the office desk and retrieved a brass alchemical device resembling a single-pan balance from one of the cabinets.
Alia placed the wand on the balance. The machine began vibrating slightly, and a narrow strip of parchnt quickly erged from a slot at the bottom. Alia tore off the strip and read the text on it.
"Maple wood, nine inches in total length, phoenix feather core,"
Alia's breathing quickened slightly. She pressed her lips together and glanced at Bryan, then looked to Mandy with a pleading expression, but Mandy was still angry about the Security Departnt's harsh treatnt of her family's savior and didn't notice Alia's gaze.
"I'm very sorry, Mr. Watson," Alia took a deep breath, as if this required great courage. But she still looked at Bryan with a stern expression.
"The specifications I just announced don't match the wand information that was registered on your original entry application. According to our records, your wand should be..."
"Oh!"
Bryan slapped his forehead and blinked innocently. Another wand slipped from his left sleeve, and he handed it to Alia.
"Sorry, I forgot I have two wands. I use them alternately sotis."
Remus's mouth twitched. He made no comnt on Bryan's statent, but looking at the girl Alia Depp, he suddenly saw so resemblance to Hermione Granger in her.
"Oh, Alia, honestly, I've told you many tis that sotis you really don't need to be quite so ticulously thorough about every minor detail," Mandy interjected with a tone that carried mild reproach.
Alia's cheeks reddened. She didn't defend herself, just silently placed the wand on the balance again.
"Ebony wood, twelve inches in total length, dragon heartstring core," Alia said with obvious relief in her voice as she confird that these specifications matched perfectly with the information contained in Bryan's official entry docuntation.
Seeing that the technical details were now properly aligned and that there were no remaining discrepancies to resolve, Alia breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
She placed both analytical strips along with both confiscated wands into a small wooden box. With a series of wand movents, Alia activated the various magical locks and security protocols that would keep Bryan's wands safely stored until such ti as they could be legally returned to him.
Throughout this entire process, Bryan had been watching Alia's careful attention to procedural details with an expression of thoughtful observation.
When she finally completed the credential processing and handed him the small official booklet that would serve as his temporary identification and entry permit, he suddenly spoke.
"Before we conclude this process, could you perhaps help convey a specific request to the Security Departnt?"
————————————
For More Chapters; /FicFrenzy
Reviews
All reviews (0)