After the call, I got a few nice jingles informing me about a raise of a skill level. But I didn't pay any attention to it, because as soon as the call started there was a traceable connection between two amulets. Therefore, right after disconnecting, I've used Blacky to completely decompose it and started moving towards the closest city.
Thanks to the small play, I did, I should have a few days of peace. That's when I should find that stupid manticore and create as much chaos as I can in Greece while I am at it. This will hopefully make my pursuers think that I am currently in Greece and they should start their search here, while I will move towards another country.
Initially, I really liked Greece for many reasons and wanted to make it the base of my future operations, but now the call exposed my general direction and so it will be a waste of time to clean up my traces.
After deciding on a plan of action, I started implementing the said plan. I went to Bucky and with his help, we reached the closest city in record time. Most of the cities across the world have magical societies hidden away from muggles and I hoped that this city is not an exception. What I am going to do is quite reckless and dangerous, but to hell with that. I need that manticore. One because killing it will bring another strong trait to my Animagus form and two ingredients from that beast are not just rare, but basically nonexistent. There are less than 10 documented instances of somebody killing those beasts. These beasts are troves of possibly miraculous alchemical ingredients.
As for what exactly I am going to do, I am going to raid that magical community for resources and information, as well as to get access to portkeys to other major cities. Obviously, they should have either the portkeys themselves or a map of the closest portkeys with their destinations. However, getting that type of information outside of the country is near impossible.
Even though the magical community was portrayed as a friendly bunch of people in Harry Potter, the reality is very different. Communities in different countries are not friends. Moreover, they often fought with each other for dominance in the past. The only reason, tension is invisible because the strongest wizards usually only care about researching magic and its branches. And that is true for the whole world. Even martial communities in China keep true to this fact.
So, wizards rarely have big wars, especially now that there are so many competitions in alchemy, Quidditch and etc. Nonetheless, that explained why no country will confidently let out information about all of their portkeys to another country.
There were exceptions of course, such as the World Cup of Quidditch, where the Ministry let other countries know the locations of some of their portkeys.
Anyway, I've strayed away from the main topic once more. My point is that I need to raid all major cities of Greece to get info on manticores (and rob them while at it), but I need to do it quickly. Therefore, knowledge of portkeys is a must.
Moreover, I would leave traces leading to my pursuers and play it in a way, that will make me an even bigger victim. Something like:
"We fought while escaping and my pursuer forced me into the city and bla and bla and bla."
Thankfully, with magic, you can create insane illusions and that is exactly what I am going for.
* A few hours later*
*Screech*
The cry of a hippogriff broke the morning silence above Patras in Western Greece and all eyes no matter magical or not were glued to the scene above the city. A giant eagle... No, that would be an understatement. A huge monster was flying right behind the hippogriff, catching up to it with every second. It was a bird with a head of an eagle, but that's where similarities to that proud bird would end.
It had scales over its body which made it reflect light, yet its coloring was the darkest shade of black possible. Its claws were gigantic and were covered by coarse skin, while its tail had no feathers, but rather tentacles of some unknown substance waving together with wings that made the whole scene somewhat surrealistic.
Despite its size, it was flying quite fast and had insane amounts of stamina, while the hippogriff looked like it will drop from the sky anytime. Moreover, there was somebody on top of the hippogriff shooting at the monster and looking at the spells' power he was quite an accomplished wizard.
Right above the city, the monster nearly caught up and lunged to finally get its claws onto the prey, but at that moment a young boisterous voice was heard:
"Bombardo maxima!"
*Boom*
And an explosion was right above the "bird", which not only hurt it but also forced it to dive down under the force of the explosion. The Hippogriff with its rider was exhausted too, so he was diving down as well, albeit slower.
*Crash*
Soon another explosion was heard, but this time due to the monster crashing down to earth. The damage to the city was insane, but its altitude before crashing wasn't that high, so injuries were quite light for it. Soon most of the wizards of the city collectively ran towards the monster to subdue and neutralize it. In the meantime, the person on the hippogriff was approached by a remainder of wizards.
Their leader said in Greek:
"Hands up where I can see them! Who are you and why did you lead that monster into the city!?"
However, the man responded in English:
"My name's Magnus, I am from England. There is a group that wants to murder me and they sent this magical creature after me. A killing squad of wizards is following right behind it. I am truly sorry for leading them here, but I had no choice. Please, I need your help!"
After looking into the stranger's eyes for a good ten seconds, the leader replied in English, albeit with an accent:
"Well, we first need to subdue that rampaging creature, so consider that our help, but after that, you owe us an explanation, mister Magnus."
Then he said something in Greek to his men, but Magnus didn't look worried about the content of what was said, because he saw something very reassuring.
『 Speech 39 ➔ 40 』
'Heh, with my abilities in "Occlumency" and "Speech" I can bullshit through any situation. These idiots from the Order have no idea who they are messing with.'