Just A Warm Up Please

Two faceless people dressed all in black, their faces totally hidden by black masks, stepped out of the shadows. The first was clearly a very tall man. The second was a woman. And as he looked at her, his mind raced back to the last battle fought at the school. He knew her. He'd fought against her. The tall man laughed with bitter amusement.

"Lupin's own son in law. How convenient. And a young welp of a boy. Running out of recruits, are you?" he laughed. He shifted his eyes to Chris. "My thanks for preserving my most valuable potions from your teacher. He's cleaned these shelves before. But the truth of the matter is that even if you could clean out this room, your Minister does not have the resources to stop me completely. He cannot possibly stop me, but I did expect him to try. It was folly to send you out alone--with a new child at your heels. A mistake. Perhaps your young student does not trust you, eh, Quinn? It does seem he'd prevented you from carrying out your mission. And what he has started, we will finish."

Brian stepped protectively in front of Chris. He wasn't necessarily so concerned about the man. Not necessarily. But the woman. She was the true threat in the room. She was utterly deadly. He did not want her to take aim at Chris. She was out of Chris's league to take on. He did not think that the man's verbal insults would wound Chris much. He believed Christ was tougher than that. But he did need to protect him from the woman.

"You still think you can take all of us, Quinn? Tsk, tsk. I thought your father in law taught you better," the man said. "but you're now looking at 6 against 2. Do the math. Neither of you will leave here alive."

"Fine by me," Brian shrugged. "But I'm taking every one of you with me." He was hoping Chris would trust him enough to remove the shield over the rest of the potions. It was looking very much like he needed to create something more for them to think about than Chris and him--and quickly.

Two masked figures, one of a tall man and another of a slender women, appeared from the shadows. Brian had a look of someone who was digging into old memories, some dark memories since he immediately jumped in front of Chris and put his wand up. Chris himself listened to every word the man and women started saying. The men seemed to have a really big ego, but he presumed that since he was still a young man he would be easily provoked and would react out of anger and attack the man, probably getting him killed. The two figures that had been binded by him and Brian quickly got back on their feet, and glared at the two Auror who stood still there. All the 8 persons had their wands drawn and ready for a massive fight.

He got to learn that Brian was the son-in-law of Lupin, one of the best wizard's Chris heard of, from the old Order of the Phoenix, back to the first generation, who was even a werewolf like him. He felt more relaxed to know that he was accompanied by such an important figure, and now he only needed to concentrate on the enemies at front. He understud that they had the numeric advantage, yes, but wasn't Lupin the one who said , It isn't one's numbers that win that battle, but one's conviction to win it. Or something around those lines. Adrenaline started flowing through his whole body, and he was ready to follow with whatever plan Brian had to get out of there.

He didn't wan'na go out of there in the form of a ghost, leaving the magic world forever, specially on his first mission with Brian, and supposedly on small-time stuff, though this was no small-time stuff. It had gotten pretty serious in a matter of minutes. But he was smart, he realized Brian needed the potions to be released in order for him to turn the tide for the Aurors. With a quick flicker of his wand, the shield around the potions disappeared and he waited for Brian to make his move.

Brian stepped back hard, directly against Chris on purpose to be able to surround him with his own shield. He stretched out his arm and fired into the rest of the potions and blew them to bits. It blasted the four women to the stone floor, knocking them unconscious.

The woman in black fired a killing curse at Brian and he felt his shield take a direct hit, but it had held. She was infuriated.

"Not today," Brian told her. He turned and fired the killing curse at the man, deliberately missing him by a fraction of an inch. The woman leaped in front of him to protect him, obviously thinking Brian had intended to kill him.

"Take out the ingredients shelf," Brian ordered Chris, pointing to the full wall of ingredients to their left. "Take them all out." The woman decided to try once more to fire at Brian and Chris, and Brian fired back at them to keep Chris covered. Then he blasted the enormous cauldron on the hearth. The room was in flames. The woman in black grabbed hold of the man in black behind her and apparated out. Brian secretely breathed a sigh of relief.

Chris felt Brian go against him, though he didn't push him or do any sudden moves that could make him do his spells in the wrong away. He waited pacientely for Brian to do his work, which he did perfectly. He knocked out the four women, as they laid on the floor unconscious, and he almost instantly was protected against a killing curse, which thank god would had hit him if it wasn't for Brian's shield which seemed to be pretty good in fact. Brian purposedly missed a killing curse as well, to make sure the women would get together with the men, ready to take him out.

Taking the hint, Chris flickered his wand, and a confringo spell blasted with the entire shelf of Ingredients, not causing a loud bang, or anything like that, fire or the sorts. It was ingredients, not full brewed potions, so it didn't have any large impacts, though the sudden cauldron exploding immediately after the Ingredients disappeared in dust, the men and women apparated away. He let out a big sigh, happy and disappointed at the same time.

"Atleast we made it safely huh?"

"More than that," Brian grinned. "We broke up an illegal potions lab, we apparently scared off the new owners and his helpers. Its a good morning's work. Nice job, Chris. I''m proud of you. The fire down here will burn out on its own, and in order to be sure its all destroyed, we need to let it burn. Its all stone down here. So there is no danger to Knockturn itself. But...just to be safe..."

He drew a magical border around the room, to seal the room from anyone but Ministry officials. "That will keep them from returning for awhile. And we did enough damage that it will take them weeks to restock. Some of those potions ingredients are far too rare for them to just open shop again. All in all, well done. So, what do you say? Shall we get up out of the depths and get some fresh air? Maybe go get some tea or something? I'll buy this time." He took one last look around. "I don't think we missed anything, did we? If not, lets head up out of here."

"Yeah, and not to brag but, I'm a very good Pottioneer, and all these potions that we blew up, plus all those Unicorn Hair, and Blood that I'm pretty sure I saw on these shelfs are ultra-rare and extra-expensive. I guess they should'a had taken a flask of Felix Felixis, maybe to try and escape us. Though two of them ran away, we still got the best of their illegal lab so yeah, I agree, we did a hel'la of a good job in here. Though I think we should take these 4 bodys of the other women away, so they won't be left in here, specially with all the vile people that habit Knockturn Alley, or down here."

Chris flickered his wand in a circular shape, and a white line surrounded the four body's as they became piled, one on top of the other, beeing protected from the flames that were slowly burning the room. Chris let out a big sigh and put on a big smile. It was his first time doing an official mission for the Aurors, specially one given by the Minister of Magic himself, and that made him be even more happy with himself. Yeah he hadn't been able to lock away the other two but, Brian had to protect Chris, and maybe if it was an expert Auror things would'a been different but, he couldn't complain, hell of a good job.

"Sure, but I'll pay. I am the new guy after all."

Chris said, letting out a small laugh.

"We'll apparate them to St. Mungos. Robert will take care of them from there," Brian said. He went over to them, bound them together with magical shackles that chained them all together. "Grab the other end of the chain. We might as well do this at one time." Once Chris had taken the other end of the chain, Brian apparated them to St. Mungos.

"Again, Brian?" Hannah scowled, seeing the pile they'd just brought in. "Is Robert going to approve?"

"Probably, but I dont' really care, to be very honest. I'll tell him they're here. Just take care of them. Usual procedures."

"Okay, okay," she waved him away, motioning other staff to come help her. Brian looked at Chris. "Let's go someplace quiet where we can talk." He motioned to him and took him upstairs to the top floor, to the healer's lounge. It was empty this time of day. He motioned to the full snack and beverage bar.

"You wont' find alcohol there, but pretty much anything else," Brian said. "Help yourself." He selected a bottle of soda and popped the cap on it. "There are some things that we ran into back there that you need to know about. Things Robert is going to want to know. But you might as well know first."

Chris watched carefully as he told Brian that hey were still to dispatch the 4 women that were left there, unconscious, in black robes on the ground, and when he told him that, Brian shackled them, and grabbed one edge of the chains, leaving the other one for Chris, which in the same moment that he grabbed, felt a twirl and twist in his stomach, the air compressing against his lungs, and then after they apparated in the Hospital his breathing became normal again. After listening to the conversation between him and the nurse they went upstairs to take a drink. He served himself a Soda like Brian, and waited for the experience Auror to talk.

"What things?"

"So you know," Brian said, "this is not the first time I have broken up that particular potions lab. I wasn't sure Robert was talking about the same one, but I'm not surprised. When my wife married her first husband, he just happened to forget to tell her he was the biggest dealer of illegal potions in Britain. And that place was one of his labs. When they divorced, he disappeared, and we thought the lab was shut down. Robert and I have broken up that lab several times.

"However--that man that was there was not Khaat's ex. Believe me. Rob was not that tall. And--he's not smart enough to be associated with that woman--the one in black. Her, I know. I've dealt with her before. She's the only one I know that wears that particular perfume. Don't ever make the mistake about trying to stand up to her. It will be your last.

"That woman is one of the most ruthless and deadly mercenaries we currently know about. She works for the highest pay. She truly enjoys killing, and I've battled her in outright face to face combat. By all we know at the Ministry, she was the muscle, and largely behind a lot of the movements of Gellert Grindelwald recently while he was in power. She is definitely on our most wanted list. But we will never take her alone. She's just too dangerous. That woman in black, without a doubt, was Zada Forbes. I thought she left England when Grindlewald left and went into hiding. But...Robert will surely want to know that she hasn't gone."

Christopher, during the times of Grindelwald's reign, sat at Hogwarts, beeing taught by every teacher, without beeing able to take a part in the fight, though he sometimes helped Potter's Army, an organization he belonged to during his school years, though he never took part in their major fights since he had been busy all his school life studying to become a top-notch Auror. But he heard the tales, and he regrets it sometimes, he wasn't able to fight Grindelwald and his servants. Would'a had proved to be a really good battle and training perhaps. Though he wasn't aware that Brian would tell him all those things.

The man that was with the evil women, that apparently Chris should be really afraid off, and she wasn't one to be taken on alone, maybe with 2 other Aurors, or one really good Auror, and maybe like that you would still have some trouble getting out, even more capturing or killing her. She proved to be a really good wizard, and the other man, the tall one with the women, was someone Brian didn't know. He waited for Brian to finish explaining, finishing his soda in the process.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he will."