"Welcome back.", Ethan said without pause as he continued to file the papers he was checking.
Cedric and Daphne stood in front of their groups as they all waited for Ethan to be done with his work.
"This week you two don't need to group with each other. The influx of people from all over the world who want to watch the Triwizard tournament has resulted in a few smugglers taking advantage of the crowd to bring in a few Mystical items into the Scottish highlands."
"So we'll be working on seizing these Mystical items?" Daphne asked.
Ethan nodded and passed two papers to both groups.
"In those papers are your targets. You may use the ministry floo to teleport to the fireplace closest to your targets. I want those items confiscated by the end of the day. They're both class three items so it shouldn't take you long."
Daphne and Cedric nodded before looking at each other. A spark flew between their eyes as they quickly turned around and walked out of the room with their groups.
Loki stayed behind in the room and once everyone was out asked Ethan a question that he wanted to know the answer to.
"Were there any more attacks like the last one?"
Ethan shook his head and laughed a little, "Ha~ if they were so common the British Isles would have vanished long ago. There are plenty of people taking care of such things, you don't need to worry about them."
Loki nodded and left the room quickly and rejoined Daphne and Hermione.
"So…?" Hermione asked Daphne since she was still holding onto the paper Ethan had passed to her.
Daphne studied the paper and then passed the paper to Hermione before beginning to explain what it was all about.
"Our item is a grade three item with little to no side effects. It needs three people to contain which makes us a good group to have been assigned for this task. It's called the Belladonna of bets."
"What does it do though?" Loki asked.
"It's a betting book. Any bets written in it will have their odds favoured. Some muggle has gotten his hands on it and is now using it to earn money by betting on various things."
"Anyone gone to retrieve it before us?" Loki asked again.
"Yes. A team of aurors were dispatched but the muggle cleverly used the book to increase his odds of escaping from them."
"I see."
"It says here that the man has killed the Aurors who were pursuing him." Hermione interrupted with a slightly shocked look.
Loki frowned but Daphne quickly dispelled their worries, "They only died because they didn't follow the sealing protocol. While by itself, the book tries to escape by shifting the odds in its favour when no one is looking at it. So we'll be fine as long as we keep looking at it."
Loki nodded but Hermione was still a little afraid.
Daphne placed her hand over Hermione's shoulder and spoke in a calm tone, "Don't worry, nothing will happen to us. I'll make sure of that. After all, I can manipulate luck too."
Hermione nodded and calmed down after that as the trio walked to the floo network on the first floor of the Ministry of Magic.
They went through the official procedures to secure a fireplace connected to the floo. It was easy to do so since they had all the proper documentation ready in the files Ethan had given them.
Pinching a bit of powder, Daphne stepped into the flames and tossed the power before shouting clearly, "Helensburgh!", followed by Hermione and then Loki.
Their location was a small department store run by a squib in the city of Helensburgh.
Once the trio arrived at their location, Daphne immediately turned toward Hermione, "Can you divine if it is alright for us to immediately pursue the muggle."
"Sure." Hermione nodded before letting out her pendulum and entering cogitation.
"It is dangerous for us to pursue Mr. Bellington to retrieve the Belladonna of Bets."
Hermione repeated the sentence seven times before opening her eyes and looking at the result that everyone was waiting for.
The pendulum was spinning counterclockwise.
"No danger.", Hermione concluded and Daphne nodded as she opened the door and stepped into the department store, pausing to give a short nod to the squib that worked here and leaving through the back door.
"Loki, try to divine the location of our target.", Daphne said as soon as they left the department store.
Loki performed a dream divination this time while sitting on a public bench and once he was done he opened his eyes and led the way.
Loki was calm but something was nagging him at the back of his mind. As he followed Hermione he started to slow down until he came to a stop because of his thoughts.
"A book that can twist fate…"
'Hermione's divination shouldn't have been affected by it since her pendulum is connected to the Sefirah Castle.'
'But, what if instead of preplanned danger Mr. Bellington has used the book to manipulate itself so that his fate is intertwined with it?'
'For example, what if the Aurors didn't really die because the book wanted to escape, but because the muggle wrote down in it that the book could never be separated from him?'
'Making it dangerous not to pursue the book itself, but separating it from him the most dangerous?'
With Loki stopping in the middle of the street, Daphne quickly stopped after which Hermione followed suit and looked at Loki.
"What happened Loki?" Hermione asked Loki while Daphne carried a look that meant the same.
"I have a little doubt, but Mione could you divine something else for me once?"
"Sure? What do you want me to divine about?"
"Divine if it is safe to separate the book from Mr. Bellington."
Hermione frowned but Daphne's eyes widened. She bit her tongue and then nodded immediately, "I understand. This was an oversight from my side. Hermione, could you please do the divination?"
Hermione nodded and performed the divination even though she didn't understand how it was any different from what she'd done a few seconds earlier.
"It is safe to separate the Belladonna of Bets from Mr. Bellington."
Hermione repeated the statement seven times and with a fresh salty breeze from the sea that brushed through the small town, she opened her eyes.
The pendulum was spinning counterclockwise.
Indicating that it wasn't safe to separate the book from the culprit.
Loki immediately frowned and instead of speaking activated his spirit vision to look around the town, looking for any obvious signs that the town was trapped in some sort of ritual like the previous two times he'd been trapped in one.
There were no obvious signs that the town was under some sort of ritual but Loki didn't let his guard down.
'Anyone smart enough to use the book to kill another person is smart enough to get himself into trouble.'
Suddenly Loki wasn't very excited at the prospect of fighting a person who was intelligent enough to use a Mystical item properly.
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