Harry Potter Squib Tales Chapter 77: Break-ins and Mishaps

Chapter 77: Break-ins and Mishaps

A week later, and things were going well. Fine, even! The dwarves had informed me that the apartment complex – now renamed to Pendragon Heights – would be fully warded by August, possibly even sooner depending on some factors, and the money they were making working for me had tempted a few other dwarven Thanedoms (they called them ‘Seters’) had approached me with offers.

I was working on a couple of ideas to incorporate them into my grow magical business empire. Construction was obvious, and could be moved to the mundane side of things easily enough. Letting them sell their runes and enchanted items through me as an intermediary was another way to get the dwarves on my side. That option would be tricky, as the Ministry of Magic would definitely take note. Dwarves were still ‘sub-humans’ and ‘Dark Creatures,’ little better than bearded goblins, and the Ministry loved to ruin and meddle with any businesses that tried to make fair contracts with them.

‘I may have to move any hypothetical businesses with them overseas,’ I mused. I was already working with Cyrus Greengrass to expand into the Americas, and I had a feeling he would leap at the chance to get genuine dwarven-quality on his side.

It’d be worth it, though. My hiring practices had made me more renowned in the non-human community as well. A dozen more hags and vampires had approached me, and I’d hired them all. I always needed more people with some understanding of magic and the ability to use it.

There were a few issues with non-human workers, though. Hags liked to eat human flesh. Obviously, I told them they’d have to give that up. They didn’t need to consume people in order to survive. Any raw meat was fine with them.

At least the vampire’s dietary issues could be solved with trips to the blood banks and ‘donations’ from the other workers who knew and weren’t worried. I did have to remind the blood-suckers that they couldn’t turn people in new vampires, though. Vampirism was basically just a blood-based lycanthropy curse. So no drinking from the tap, so to speak.

My rules were accepted and had been obeyed so far. I had no doubt somebody was going to screw up at some point, either by accident or maliciously, but until that happened all I could do was wait and watch.

That made me happy, and I had a few ideas to recruit new people if I ended up expanding into North America. There were a lot of near-humans who’d migrated there over the centuries, turning it into a melting pot as diverse as the mundane side, to say nothing of the native magical species.

‘I should ask my maids about that… and isn’t it weird I actually have those,’ I thought, amused.

“Mr. Rose? You have a call on Line 3,” my secretary informed me, taking me out of my daydreams, and I gave her a nod.

“Of course, thank you, Gladys,” I said as I returned to my office. ‘Let me think… Line 3… that’s the connection Mark Fetters has to my office.’

Sitting down at my desk, I grabbed the phone’s receiver and pressed the button next to the flashing light.

“Mark? What’s up?” I asked. “Something up with the recycling plant? Or the club?”

“The latter,” Marky replied with a grim tone.

I nodded slowly at that. So, it was something to do with the information network he ran using his night club’s connections, then. And if he was calling me about it, then it was big.

“Go on.”

“I’ve had some people asking around about you, and I think something big is being planned.”

“Ugh, why can’t they just leave me alone?” I wondered.

“That’s the thing, boss. They aren’t going after you directly,” Mark informed me, and I froze.

“What?” I hissed.

“Word on the street is some inquiries have been made. Not about Miss Hunt, your girlfriend is still off-limits after what happened to the last bunch who tried to make off with her. But anyone else related to you. There’s nothing about your own family since they don’t live nearby… but they’ve been looking and snooping all the same.”

I clenched the receiver tighter at that as I realized what Mark had left unsaid. Somebody was snooping around my connections, and they might be trying to go after

Could Sam and her family be in danger? What about the Dursleys? As much as I hated them, I didn’t want them dead, which is exactly what would happen to the Dursleys if they got caught by criminals.

‘They’d off Vernon and Petunia the moment either of them started to mouth off,’ I thought grimly.

“Mark, send me the information you have about this the usual way,” I instructed him, not trusting anything else to be mentioned over the phone.

“Already on its way,” he assured me.

“Keep this on the downlow,” I ordered before hanging up. He hadn’t spilled too much information over the phone, and he knew enough not to say anything incriminating while we were still dealing with a way to track the wiretaps.

‘Still, he may have tipped off somebody. Though even that will be useful, as we can find out who is responsible for the wiretap based on who makes use of the information Mark let slip.

If I wasn’t so busy I’d definitely find a way to use it… but there’s nothing else I can do. Someday, though. Someday.

‘For now, I have see what exactly Marky had learned about,’ I thought to myself before standing up from my desk.

Then, I approached the bookshelf and removed a single tome from one of my bookshelves. The title on its spine, “Advanced Economic Theorems,” gave a hint to the dry and bland contents within. But it also served as a distraction.

Opening it to the last page, it was blank, but not for long. After folding the corners of the empty page inwards, words began to spill across the surface and the information Mark had gotten for me was soon revealed, replacing the contents of the economics textbook.

The intel my unofficial spymaster had uncovered was worrying. People had been spotted in Sam’s neighborhood. People who had no business being there. Petty criminals whose sole purpose was to case joints, acquiring info on security. These bastards would sell the information to other people instead of robbing the place themselves. Safer that way.

Of course, it wasn’t just thieves who bought this knowledge. Information brokers like Marky Fetters would do so as well, obtaining valuable data on the habits and lives of people that they could use later for one thing or another.

‘And according to some of Mark’s contacts, these scumbags have been very active where Sam and the Dursleys live,’ I thought as I continued to read.

That wasn’t all that Mark had managed to scrounge up. There were also details on something I’d asked for him to investigate months ago and had only recently found more about. And they did not make me happy.

“Son of a bitch!” I hissed angrily as I read everything. Sir Briar was behind the hostile takeover of Mrs. Parson’s old workplace? But why?

I ran a hand over my face. ‘No. I already know ‘why.’ Mrs. Parson was just a convenient target so he could go after me.’

Had he planned to manipulate things so he could hold this over my head? Use my friendship with Sam and her family to force me to do things in exchange for making sure Mrs. Parson would keep her job?

‘Well, jokes on him! I offered her a new job as manager of my PR team, and she leapt at the chance! He never had a chance to use this disgusting bit of extortion!’ I thought with a hint of vindictive glee.

And that, I realized after a moment to think it over, was the problem. I’d ruined Sir Briar’s scheme, and now he was no longer content to play around and do things sneaky-like. Instead, he was going to be a lot more direct going forward.

‘I need more information on this old bastard,’ I thought with a grimace.

Sir Briar was too dangerous to confront without a lot of intel and a surefire plan to take him down… or make him agree to stop going after me and my own.

Drumming my fingers against the spine of the enchanted book, I eventually closed it after I’d committed everything Mark had reported to memory. Occlumency was truly the gift that kept giving… so long as I didn’t go overboard with it again.

This was not good, and I headed back to my desk, pressing a button on the phone.

“Gladys? Do I have any other appointments for the day?” I asked, speaking to my secretary.

“No, Mr. Rose. You have nothing else scheduled,” Mrs. Calloburgh assured me, and I thanked her before hanging up and grabbing a Portkey in the form of a pen from my desk.

“Time to make sure Sam is okay and warn her,” I muttered. “Pop-pop, gotta go.”

The passphrase uttered, I vanished from my office, appearing in the hallway near Sam’s apartment. I hurried over to his door and knocked, hoping she was in. She should have been, her classes were over for the day.

Thankfully, my guess was right, as a voice called out, “It’s open!”

I went inside, the door unlocked, and I found her working on something in the kitchen, batter all over her apron.

“Sam, we need to talk,” I told her seriously, and she frowned before nodding.

“Alright, lemme just turn on the oven,” she requested, turning a switch before glancing back to me. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, actually. Some problems have arisen I need to talk to you about,” I said.

“It’s like the only thing you wanna talk about is bad news,” Sam grumbled, and I winced. It wasn’t entirely true… but not by enough.

“Some bad people have been observing your parent’s house,” I informed her, and Sam scowled.

“Who?”

“Sir Briar,” I replied. “He’s also the one responsible for getting your mother fired from her job.”

“He did what?” Sam hissed angrily. “Why?”

“I’m sorry,” I said, bowing my head apologetically. “It’s my fault. He’s going after you because you’re friends with me.”

“He’s trying pressure you into something by holding my family hostage over you?” she demanded, and I nodded.

“By doing this, Sir Briar hopes to force me to sell him everything. To steal majority control of my products and companies for himself,” I explained. I was simplifying it, but that was the gist of the old man’s thinking.

His motives were based on greed, pure and simple. There really was nothing else. At least, none that I could find, although I had my suspicions about how he had access to magic. He wasn’t a Squib, I was pretty certain of that. But perhaps he had married or known one.

“Are you going to protect us?” Sam asked, and I nodded.

“Of course! I’ll have a House Elf keep an eye on you, and I won’t let anything happen!” I promised whole-heartedly.

“Good,” Sam said. I winced a little at the tone of voice she was using.

“You’re mad at me, aren’t you?” I said hesitantly, and Sam snorted.

“A little bit, yeah. But really, I’m mostly pissed off at Sir Briar,” she huffed. “I know you’ll keep Kate and my parents safe. I trust you. But I really, really don’t like all of this cloak and daggers stuff.”

“I don’t either,” I agreed, but Sam shook her head.

“It’s not that I dislike it when others do… Ed, how long will it be before you start doing the same? Hell, you’re already doing it in some ways with the magical side!” Sam said, annoyance tinging her words.

I grimaced, wanting to deny her… but found I couldn’t. She wasn’t entirely wrong. My work was important. I knew it was, because if I didn’t do something, the magical world would die, and possibly drag the mundane world down with it. Yet I was conducting business moves that were ruthless, and making decisions that would influence the entire world without really know what would happen.

I knew that this was the right thing to do. That this was the right path… but sometimes I felt like I was becoming more and more like the monsters I’d once claimed to never be anything like.

‘Was this how it started for people like Dumbledore? The ‘Greater Good…’ it’s too tempting. too slippery a slope, to just say I know best when others don’t,’ I thought to myself.

I had the unique perspective of seeing the future of two worlds, but I couldn’t be certain that the ripples I’d made wouldn’t become tidal waves that’d destroy everything in their path.

“Am I heading down that road already?” I asked Sam, looking at my oldest friend with a hint of worry in my heart.

Thankfully, she shook her head. “Power doesn’t just corrupt, it reveals what is already there,” she replied, causing me to snort.

“Didn’t I use that line in one of our D&D games?” I asked.

“You sure did. But it’s true, for all that it was said in a campaign about slaying an evil dragon,” she stated, before patting my shoulder. “Ed, you’ve been a good friend. And you want to be a good man. Just don’t loose sight of the fact that your goal is going to affect more than just yourself and I believe you will avoid losing your way.”

She then smirked. “Besides, if you ever do start to go crazy, we’ll be there to drag you back to the right path.”

“Well, maybe not Sirius. He’d probably help cause the chaos,” I mused, causing Sam to snort.

“Yeah, he’s a wild animal. He needs to get laid. Bang the goofy out of him.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” I said, even though I was smiling a little in amusement.

Sirius had had a few one-night stands so far, but I couldn’t see him settling down anytime soon. Though in his defense, a decade in Azkaban would make anyone want to party like a rockstar for a while, just to revel in life.

“Let’s talk about something else,” I said, and Sam looked surprised. Seeing that, I raised an eyebrow. “What? You’re the one who complained about us not hanging out except for emergencies anymore.”

“Alright. What do you wanna talk about?”

“Sooo… how did your family take the, uh, belt thing?” I asked, trying to find a topic and discuss something else not related to business and the fate of the world. It’d been a while since Christmas but I hadn’t had a lot of time to spend with her recently so I was curious to know what exactly had been going on in that instance.

“Kate liked it,” Sam said with a shrug. I nodded, having expected that. She’d been fine with Sam being trans, after all. Having a ‘big sister’ had been a lot of fun for her.

“And your parents?”

“Well, at first they thought I’d been ‘cursed,’ which, yes, technically, but they finally understood after a bit that I wanted to be this way,” Sam replied. “I suppose it helps that, thanks to the curse, none of our neighbors or family members remember me being a guy. My parents only remember because they are now magical.”

“As expected,” I said. “So, what are you baking today?”

“I’m preparing for the cooking show,” she replied, her tone switching over to one of excitement. “I’ve a great idea for a souffle using a few magical tricks in my cook book that, on the surface, seem mundane and can pass as such.”

“Well, be careful with that,” I warned, before grinning. “But remember, Delilah and I expect to be your taste testers leading up to it.”

“I’ll make sure there’s plenty of food for you to enjoy,” Sam promised. “You’ll be sick of pastries by the time I’m done.”

“I doubt that,” I scoffed. She narrowed her eyes, taking that declaration as a challenge. I just grinned back.

“I know you’re playing me,” she admitted after a moment. “But damn it, I wanna wipe that smirk off your face!”

“I can’t smirk if my mouth is full of cake,” I replied. At that, Sam rolled her eyes at me.

This was nice. Just two friends hanging out after way too long. I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed this.

111 &&& 111

With Sam and her family now being watched over by a rotation of House Elves – and occasionally having some tidying up and chores secretly done – I turned my attention to the Dursleys. They were still unpleasant people living in their cookie-cutter house that reminded me of a surreal horror movie setting with how identical everything on Privet Drive was.

There was some good news about this set-up. Anybody who wasn’t part of the ‘in’ crowd would immediately get spotted, so there were rarely watchers and informants. Break-ins did happen, but rarely, and they were spontaneous matters.

‘Plus, with the Stepford wives all snooping on each other all day it makes it very hard for anybody to do anything suspicious without being spotted right away and then gossiped about,’ I thought with a snort.

But yes, the Dursleys. Vernon was still a manager at Grunnings. Petunia was still a housewife, though her beloved rose bushes had fared poorly since Harry had stopped living with them. And Dudley was still a brat, though without Harry to bully his antics were significantly less tolerated by the rest of the people around him. I didn’t know a lot, but ‘Dudders’ had gotten his ass handed to him at Smeltings Academy and learned that he was not top dog anymore.

‘Hopefully it humbles the kid and he ends up a better person than his parents,’ I thought to myself as I went over the information I had on the Dursleys. Keeping them safe was secondary to the Parsons, so I wasn’t going to have a House Elf watch over them, but some protective and monitoring charms were slapped onto them that’d alert us if they were in trouble.

And, there was another person in Privet Drive I was interested in. A part of me wanted to approach Arabella Figg. She was a fellow Squib, after all and she deserved better than a moth-eaten house full of ugly cats. But I dismissed the idea as she was too firmly in Dumbledore’s pocket.

I had reasons to believe that her home had been purchased for her by the old wizard, as she hadn’t lived in Privet Drive until Harry had shown up, at least based on records. And I knew that being given a house for free would make anybody loyal, especially if they were a Squib, who would likely struggle to make ends meet.

So, no, I couldn’t approach her. It was best to let her live her own life. That was the only kindness I could offer at the moment. And who knows? Maybe she’d still be around when the global ritual would be enacted and everyone would gain magic. Then I might catch up with her again.

I held back a sigh as I leaned back in my car. I was parked near Privet Drive, waiting for Shoe to finish putting the charms on the Dursleys. A second after I thought that, a pop in the back seat alerted me to the appearance of the floppy eared fellow I was bonded with.

“Is it done?” I inquired, turning around to face the House Elf. “Any troubles?”

“Yes, Mr. Rose,” Shoe said, and I nodded, pleased.

“Good. You also remembered not to call me ‘master,’” I said, a smirk on my face.

“You asked us not to,” Shoe pointed out, and I chuckled.

“I sure did. Now if only Inky and Rainy would take the hint,” I replied with a shake of my head.

“That might take a while, Mr. Rose,” Shoe said with a wince. I agreed. They were very traditional. Not entirely a bad thing, but going around calling people ‘master’ didn’t sit well with a lot of people nowadays. Me included.

“I’m confident they’ll overcome these challenges,” I replied, before starting the car.

Driving away from Harry’s old home felt freeing, and I wondered if I should get somebody to TP the Dursley’s house next Halloween. Such pettiness was supposed to be beneath me, according to Delilah, but honestly, rich people were just as petty at times. They just had more options for getting revenge.

Returning to my apartment, I felt a sense of unease creep over me, and I looked around cautiously. One of the House Elves would have warned me if something was wrong, but I couldn’t shake the feeling.

I made some lunch and did a bit of paperwork, but my mind simply wouldn’t settle down. Something was wrong, and I didn’t know what, or why. Eventually, I could wait no more and slumped in my seat.

“Let’s see what the future has in store,” I muttered to myself, handing reaching for a small velvet drawstring bag I kept on my person at all times. More than any other piece of magical equipment I owned, this was one of the oldest and most important.

Getting out one of my Divination Dice from their velvet bag, I took a deep breath. “Will something bad happen to me within the next twenty-four hours?” I asked, and tossed the carved bone across the table. They came to a halt, the rune ‘No’ looking back at me.

“Will something bad happen to one of my friends or family members?” I inquired aloud, and tossed the die again. This time, the rune for ‘Yes’ glared back balefully, and I swallowed nervously.

What followed over the next few minutes was a barrage of questions and rolling dice as I desperately tried to narrow down the exact person something bad was about to happen to.

“Will something bad happen to Scarlett?” I asked, having run out of immediate friends and family. To my surprise, the die showed “Yes.”

I frowned at that, confused. The red-headed werewolf was an employee, and I did think well of her, but was she really a friend? More of an acquaintance, really. And while Remus was at Hogwarts, she was in charge of security.

‘According to the runes she’s close enough to a friend for it to count, though, and I’m not going to argue with the magical fortune-telling artifact,’ I thought to myself. ‘Still, I have to find out what happens to her!’

Before I could roll the dice and find out, the phone rang, and for a moment I considered ignoring but, but when it rang a second time, I went to answer it.

“Edward here,” I said as I picked up the phone. A frown crept onto my face and I grimaced. “What? A break in?! Scarlett is confronting them?! …I see. I will be there soon.”

Hanging up, I summoned to Inky with a mental command, and he appeared next to me.

“Take me to Warehouse 3,” I instruct tersely, and the House Elf bowed and complied, sensing my anger.

There was a pop and rushing of air, and I found myself outside of my apartment and near the warehouse that stored the experimental potions and products.

Several people were standing around nearby, but I recognized them as people who worked for me: a pair of security guards, a janitor, and Merula Snyde.

“What the hell is going on?!” I demanded, growling at my employees in a very good imitation of a werewolf.

“Ve have a problem,” one of the vampires on my payroll said as he stepped forward, his eerie pale skin. He was one of the vamps who liked to play up the vampire stereotypes. Popped collars, capes, ridiculous accent… he knew it was stupid but it was his way of coping.

I was surprised to see him out during the day, though. He’d slathered himself in sunscreen, but Vampirism was a curse, like Lycanthropy, and even covered up the sunlight could harm him badly.

“Where’s Scarlett?” I demanded, walking over to the group.

“Still inside,” the vampire replied.

“Is she hurt?” I asked.

“No, but she’s not alone,” the janitor spoke up.

“Elaborate,” I ordered tersely.

“Well, it’s like we called you about. There was a break in, and Scarlett went in after them!” the other security guard, a werewolf, claimed. “There was a lot of banging and crunching, and I think a few potions got disturbed."

I grimaced at that. Warehouse 3 was where the experimental products were created, tested, and stored. There were some weird things in there, a few which could be volatile and potentially life threatening.

‘We need to up the security and defenses around it when this is resolved,’ I thought to myself.

“Do we know why Scarlett is taking so long?” I inquired, switching to another topic.

“Dunno. The warehouse isn’t that big,” Merula said. “She got me out and started chasing the guy who broke in. Even though I could have helped.”

The young woman huffed, annoyed at being sent out of the building despite having a wand, and I shrugged.

“Probably didn’t want spells going off around unstable potions,” I pointed out, and Merula grimaced.

“Yeah, probably,” she sighed. “So, how it happened is the wards got triggered, alerting me. I was working with a new recipe, and contacted security. Scarlett got the call, and wanted to use her nose to sniff out the culprit since the wards couldn’t locate the guy, we just knew we had an intruder. She sent me out, called more guys to watch the exits, but it’s been twenty-ish minutes and the place is not big enough for it to take that long!”

“How many exits does this place have?” I inquired.

“Only vone, aside from zhe entrance,” the vampire explained. “Bobby is vatching it.”

I didn’t know who Bobby was, but I nodded all the same. “Okay, you two are coming with me. We’re going in to find out what happened. Merula, come with us. We might need your expertise in case something got spilled.”

“Gotcha, boss,” Merula nodded.

“Couldn’t you just use your House Elf?” the janitor asked, and we all paused, as we hadn’t thought of that.

“Right,” I muttered, feeling a little embarrassed. “Inky?”

The House Elf, who hadn’t left my side after teleporting me here, nodded his head.

“Inky shall go find Missy Scarlett,” he replied, before vanishing with a pop. A few seconds passed before he returned, two people appearing on the ground alongside the House Elf.

“So, that’s the intruder?” I guessed, looking down at the man Inky had brought along.

“Smells like it,” the werewolf guard confirmed.

However, my attention was more focused on Scarlett, and what had happened to her. And, I supposed, to the chuckle-fuck who’d broken in. Both of them were unnaturally still, not even breathing, with their eyes wide open while a faint yellow glow surrounded them. They were alive, if the light in their eyes was any indicator, but beyond that, I couldn’t tell anything else.

“Merula?” I asked, turning to the Potions Mistress.

“The two of them got doused in an experimental potion,” she said with a grimace after inspecting the duo. “Something I stopped trying to work on a while ago.”

“Alright, what exactly did you make?” I inquired, feeling like I was not going to like what I was about to hear.

“I created a potion that creates temporal distortions,” she explained, and I ran a hand over my face.

“You made a potion that can mess with time?” I demanded incredulously.

Though, a part of me was jealous. I’d been trying to figure out a way to mess around with time for a while, and she came up with something on her own?

“Sorta? It’s more of a stasis potion,” Merula said. “I was inspired by this movie, Star Wars, that Scarlett showed me. You know, the scene where they seal Han Solo in Carbonite to transport him? Well, I was thinking I could make a potion to do something similar. Well, more along the lines of a potion to put somebody in suspended animation.”

“Doesn’t the Draught of Living Death already do that?” I asked, confused.

“Well, yeah, but not as good. You’re still alive, just in a coma. Time still passes, meaning you get older, and if you’re hurt, you’ll heal at a normal rate. You just don’t suffer the hunger, thirst, or the usual muscular degradations while under the effect of the draught, at least if the potion is of a high enough quality. This potion, though? It’s like you’re trapped in a bubble of stopped time. Nothing can happen to you, meaning people can be taken in for healing without issue if they’re too hurt for side-along apparition or Port Keys,” Merula informed me.

“That sounds incredibly useful, actually,” I commented, wondering why it was in the failure warehouse.

“Yeah, but the problem with the potion is that it’s bloody volatile around magic,” Merula explained, frowning all the while. “Even just casting a Lumos in the same room as it will cause it to explode and catch everybody nearby in the effects. And it cannot be stored near other potions. That’s why I stopped experimenting with it. Too unstable, especially around a workshop like mine. There’s also some other problems, but I’m not gonna get into the technical details right now.”

That caught my attention, and not in a good way.

“What?” I uttered. “How did it explode, then? And where were you keeping it?”

“I’d kept the only sample of the stuff locked up in a lead-lined safe in the floor of my office. No magic at all!” Merula quickly stated. “And if it exploded… I guess he used magic near it.”

“Magic, huh?” I looked over at the intruder, frowning.

“How did he know where the safe was in the first place?” the janitor spoke up, which was a very pertinent question.

“I can think of only two people besides myself who know it even exists,” Merula admitted. “The guy who installed it, and the person who helped renovate my office so the damn thing could even fit.”

“Vell, that helps narrow it down,” the vampire guard muttered, and I nodded.

“Technically, three people besides yourself,” the old janitor admitted. When we looked at him for clarification, he just shrugged. “I clean up in there, after all. Not hard to notice when one part of the floor is fake and concealing something beneath it.”

“Ah. Yeah, true,” the head of my potion brewing business agreed, looking embarrassed to have forgotten about the help.

“So? Did you tell anyone?” I asked him, cutting to the heart of the matter.

“No, sir, Mr. Rose! Never mentioned it to anybody in any way! And if I’m lying, the contract will let us know! I swear on it!” he proclaimed. When the contract he’d signed didn’t activate after swearing on it, we all nodded, though I resolved to keep an eye on him. It was a bit suspicious in my opinion.

‘Yes, he’d come clean, and claimed he hadn’t done anything with the knowledge, but that could just be a ruse to make himself seem innocent,’ I thought to myself. ‘And there are ways around the Oath-binding effects of the contract. It’s not foolproof, after all. Nothing is.’

Also, why was the janitor here, now, in the middle of the day? Didn’t they usually do work later, closer towards the evenings? That was how I set things up, at least.

Making a mental note to have his background checked latter, I turned back to the young woman with dual-colored hair.

“We can deal with security leaks in a moment. Can you fix whatever is wrong with them?” I asked intently.

“Oh, sure, it’s not that hard. A Finite will undo things in a jiffy,” she replied. “And don’t worry, it’s no longer volatile once the potion’s affected somebody.”

“Well, that answers my next question,” I replied. “Undo Scarlett, please. Don’t bother with the intruder just yet. We’ll put him somewhere safe for interrogation, and then undo the effect.”

“Yes, sir, mister boss man,” Merula said, giving me nod, before pulling out her wand and muttering “Finite Incantantum,” over the red-headed werewolf.

The glow around her body vanished like a soap bubble popping, and with a jerk, Scarlett sat up, raising her hand.

“Stop right-!” she began, clearly thinking she was still confronting the thief, but blinked and looked woozy when her surroundings weren’t as they’d previously been. “Huh? What’s going on?”

“You got caught in a magical accident when the thief broke in,” Merula explained as she cast a diagnostic spell on the security chief. “Hm. All good, no lingering issues.”

That was a relief, and I kneeled down next to her. “Scarlett, can you tell me what happened?”

“Where is he?” she asked, ignoring my question to look around. When she spotted him next to her, frozen in place, Scarlett sagged in relief. “Oh. Good, he didn’t get away.”

“Scarlett, focus,” I requested, injecting a note of authority into my voice. “Explain what happened here.”

She blinked, but then blushed a little when she realized I’d been here the whole time, and she hastily cleared her throat.

“I got a heads up from Merula that somebody was snooping around,” Scarlett replied. “There wasn’t supposed to be anybody inside Warehouse 3 at the time beside her, so I came down to check on the situation with a Portkey. When I arrived, I alerted the other security guards on duty, had Bob go around back to keep him from trying to book it from the rear, and then came straight here. I got inside with the master key, escorted Merula outside, and then went back inside. I found the intruder easily with my sniffer.”

She tapped the side of her nose with a smug smirk, before frowning. “He was in Merula’s office, and I’d just kicked the door down to confront him when there was this flash of yellow… and the next thing I know is I’m waking up out here.”

“Yeah, sorry about,” Merula apologized. “The intruder used magic near a volatile potion I’d stored in my safe, so it kinda blew up and caught you in the blast radius.”

The potioneer rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Though it’s weird that the explosion reached you. The safe was underneath my desk, and that’s five meters away from the door. In the previous tests, the potion’s area of effect was only two meters, max!”

“Could it have gotten stronger vith age?” the vampire wondered, and Merula frowned thoughtfully.

“Maybe? Chronomancy is not something I know much about. Potions don’t usually get more potent with age. They weaken. Still, that’s an interesting thing to test.”

“Do so later, and with strict defenses,” I ordered, before looking back to Scarlett. “It’s good to know you’re fine. And excellent job rushing out to confront the thief. Just bring more back-up next time and don’t have them sit around outside.”

“Yes, boss,” she replied with a nod.

“Good. Now, Merula… stun the janitor.”

“What?!”

“Sure thing.”

There was a sizzle and thump, and the janitor collapsed, stunned.

“Nobody was supposed to be here at this time, you said?” I asked Scarlett for confirmation, and she nodded slowly.

“That’s right.”

“Then he shouldn’t have been here, either,” I said, before turning to the other security guards. “Can one of you get me the schedule for today?”

The werewolf of the duo nodded and hurried off, while the vampire called out for the third member of the team who’d been guarding the rear entrance.

A moment later, a sheet of paper that had this weeks work schedule for Warehouse 3 was handed to me, and I looked it over closely. “Someone tampered with this,” I uttered darkly after a moment of scrutiny.

Indeed, somebody had placed the janitor’s name – which I knew now was Clint thanks to the patch on his shirt – onto the work schedule for today in the time slot from noon till five pm.

Curious, I had Inky fetch me the master copy of the work schedule from my office, and compared it to this one. Nobody was supposed to change these without permission from a manager or higher, and any changes had to be noted down onto the master copy as well.

Having a master copy for every week’s work schedule allowed me to better see where and when my employees were supposed to be working. It also helped ensure there were no mix-ups and everyone had their allotted time noted down for overtime and rates. Also, any changes made to the master copy would magically be placed onto every other one, so nobody would miss out.

Not many people knew about this ability of the master copies, though, so trying to change the regular work schedules to try and run a ‘clerical error’ scam wouldn’t succeed.

Now, this wasn’t an iron-clad sign of foul play on the janitor’s part, but it certainly painted an unpleasant picture.

“What do we do with them?” Scarlett asked, looking from the thief to the traitor.

“Separate them and interrogate them,” I ordered. “Find out what they know, then erase that from their minds, and come up with a story for them. We’ll turn the thief in to the police as we caught him in the act, but the janitor will be allowed to go free.”

“Even if he’s a traitor?” Merula asked.

“Especially if he’s a traitor. Better the turncoat you know and can feed false information to than the spy you have no idea of,” I replied, and Scarlett and the other guards nodded in agreement. I then gestured towards the thief. “Before that, though… undo the stasis. I want to check something.”

Merula shrugged and did so, and when he jerked around and came back to his senses, I hit him with a Stunner Ofuda, knocking him back out.

Why did I do this, you ask? Because the wannabe thief had a ring on his right hand that had caught my attention, and I bent down, prying it off his hand.

“This is a magic ring,” I said.

“You sure?” Scarlett asked.

“Yes,” I confirmed. “See these markings? They’re runes.”

“What does the ring do?” the werewolf inquired.

“Lock and unlock things,” I replied as I examined the runes closely. “The person would have to be a Squib to use it, but it could easily undo any mechanical lock, and could even open objects sealed with minor anti-tampering charms.”

“A powerful artifact,” Scarlett mused. “Not something an average person would have.”

“Indeed. It’s also old. Look at how worn the metal is? It was made over a century ago, at least, based on the corrosion and wear-and-tear I can see,” I stated.

I would need a proper jeweler to check and give me a better idea, but it was interesting all the same. And if this thief was connected to Sir Briar, like I suspected he was, that just told me he knew about magic and had access to some of it.

My security team led the two fools away, and I gave a nod at Merula. “Well done.”

“No problem, boss.”

“Now, let’s discuss some of your ‘experiments’ and the importance of informing people about what you’re doing, hmmm?”

Merula paled, and she winced. “Yes, boss.”

I had Inky port us back to my office. She would get a stern talking to, but it’d be a slap on the wrist at worst. Her experiments hadn’t caused any major harm, and just might help lead me to the secrets I sought regarding finding a way to manipulate time for my own purposes.