February 1, 1996. Private Audience Room, Buckingham Palace. The Queen met with the Queen's Wizard and her Prime Minister. "What is the status of things with the British Wizarding World?" she asked. The Prime Minister said "There appears to be no real change. They have not responded to our ultimatum. We published three advertisements in their newspaper describing the situation; we understand that Minister Fudge got a lot of heat as a result, but the government is too corrupt to do anything but sit on their hands. "Sir John, what do you advise regarding the wizarding world?" the Queen asked her 'Wizard'. "I believe we are in somewhat of a difficult position, at the moment. We have issued an ultimatum – to dissolve the Magna Carta of 1225. The ultimatum has passed. If we do nothing, the Wizarding World will believe we have no teeth. If we keep our end of the ultimatum, we must take over the British Wizarding World; we would have to send in enough troops to cover all government buildings, institutions, and patrol streets, etc. This would require our troops to be spread out and easy prey for unwilling or uncooperative magical civilians, not to mention the Death Eaters." He replied. The continued to discuss the subject another 20 minutes. At the end, they agreed to alert all banks and financial institutions to freeze the funds of any British wizarding business doing business in the non-magical world; freeze the funds (and not open accounts) specifically of Misters Fudge, Dumbledore, Tom Marvolo Riddle, and any known Death Eater; and, lastly, to set up a unit of specially trained soldiers to combat and defend against magical attacks on non-magical civilians.
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February 1, 1996 – 05:00am, Hebredian Islands – The last week of Advanced Skills was going to consist of boarding and clearing a ship at sea. They were going to learn to board the ship by dropping down from a helicopter, boarding the ship from a zodiac, and boarding the ship as divers. Evan was NOT looking forward to that - training in the Scottish Highlands in mid-winter was cold enough. Swimming in the North Atlantic in mid-winter…..brrrrrr.
February 3, 1996 – 04:00am, Hebredian Islands – Evan and his team were on a helicopter hovering 100 feet over their target. It was pitch black outside (with the exception of the winking lights of the ship below), winds were blowing at 20 miles per hour, and it was 1 degC (33.8degF) outside. The ocean itself was choppy. As was now standard, he was at a heightened sense of alert - his senses and Haragi were scanning for potential danger. He could sense sentient beings at the outer edges of his senses. Looking around, Evan didn't see anything, but they had that 'flavor' of magic. He figured they were Hebredian Black dragons, and he was really hoping to not have a repeat performance of the previous school year. As his team descended the ropes to the ship below, Evan was surprised he could sense the conscious of one of the dragons in particular. It didn't appear to have any hostile intent so, for now, he brushed that aside and focused on the task at hand – clear the captain's command room and the ship from intruder terrorists. The exercise was set up with "innocent crewmen" targets and "terrorist" targets, as well as a group of "hostages". The team was spilt up into three groups, each with an objective. Evan's group was to take the captain's command room. They were using paint-ball guns as they were non-lethal, identified if a target was hit, and the low-decibel sound it made simulated silenced weapons. To quickly dispel the notion of non-retaliation by paper targets and emphasize force-on-force, the "terrorists" were other soldiers, also equipped with paint-ball guns.
As they were completing the exercise, Evan felt a great presence nearby. It felt curious, not malevolent. He stopped and concentrated on the presence – "We mean you no harm, Great One" he projected. He felt the presence push against his mental shields, and allowed it entry. Evan felt the dragon's continued curiosity. He explained who he and his team were, and what their purpose was. Memories of the defense at Christchurch and at the Palace played out in his mind. The first task at the Tri-Wizard also came forward in his memories. At the dragon's further curiosity, Evan explained who his alter ego was (Harry Potter), how he got into the Tri-Wiz, and what happened. Evan was curious as well and asked where the dragon was hiding – he was concerned about it being spotted by the helicopter….Not a good recipe. The dragon 'chuckled' and an image of it hanging off the far side (where the shadows were darkest) of the ship popped into his head. "Well met Harry Potter", the dragon sent to his mind. "My name is Aimon" he continued. "I sense we will meet again in the future" Aimon concluded, and then left the ship with just the slightest of dip of the ship marking it departure.
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