Chapter 93: Julia's Ambition
The call connected, and the old gentleman's face appeared on the glowing screen.
"Sir, I'm sorry to bother you again," Julia said politely. She noticed that the background behind him was deliberately blurred, likely to conceal his surroundings. She'd seen others do it before; it was an understandable desire for privacy.
"Miss Julia," the old man said, his brow furrowed with a look of genuine concern. "After I received your message, I gave it some thought. My friend does indeed live in the Great Lakes region, but his specific location is protected by a Fidelius Charm. I'm afraid I cannot give you his address without his permission. I'm very sorry."
His expression was a perfect picture of a man torn between his desire to help and his duty to a friend. Julia, for her part, was astonished. It seemed every wizard this old man knew lived under the protection of one of the most powerful concealment charms in existence. The thought that he might be lying never crossed her mind; she simply assumed he must be a very important and well-connected wizard.
"That's quite alright, sir. I completely understand," she said. "But could you perhaps give me a general area? It would help me narrow my search."
The man who called himself Percival Gellert seemed to hesitate before reluctantly giving her a location: "The western shore of Lake Huron."
"Thank you so much, sir! I'll let you know as soon as I find anything," Julia said, her spirits lifted. She ended the call and immediately Apparated away.
Though Apparition was fast, it had its limits. Even a wizard as powerful as Voldemort couldn't cross an entire country in a single jump. For Julia, reaching the western shore of Lake Huron would require several successive Apparitions.
On the other end of the call, the old man closed the communication screen, his brow furrowed as he stared into the distance. To his magic-infused sight, he could perceive a strange aura hanging in the air over the western side of the lake. It wasn't like the elemental signatures of normal magic. It was colorless, a void, a series of unevenly distributed holes in the fabric of reality, twisting and writhing like a knot of ethereal centipedes. But when he retracted his magic, the sensation vanished completely. He had never encountered anything like it in his long life.
He thought for a moment, then opened his communicator and found the "Nurmengard" group chat. He sent a message to the other person in the chat, describing what he had seen and asking if they had ever encountered such a phenomenon. He's not responding immediately, the old man thought, a flicker of impatience crossing his mind. He's probably still getting used to the device.
"It will take the young lady some time to reach Lake Huron," he mused. "And he still hasn't replied. I suppose I should go and take a look myself." With a faint shimmer, he vanished.
After several long-distance Apparitions that pushed her to her limits, Julia collapsed onto a mountain peak, gasping for breath. She pulled a Chocolate Frog from her pocket and, before the enchanted confection could even think of hopping away, bit its head off. The chocolate body went rigid, twitched once, and was still. She chewed viciously, the act of eating becoming an outlet for her frustration.
After devouring five or six more Chocolate Frogs, her energy restored, her sharp mind began to work again. "Wait a minute," she thought. "After I graduated from Ilvermorny, I worked for a time in the census division at MACUSA. As I recall, there are no permanent wizarding families on the western shore of Lake Huron."
Am I misremembering? Is my memory already failing me? The young witch ran a worried hand through her hair, a daily ritual that seemed to yield more and more loose strands every morning. "I wonder what kind of person the old gentleman's friend is." She lay back on the mountaintop, watching an eagle circle in the sky above, and imagined herself as the bird, free to do as she pleased, with the power to match her ambitions.
But she had failed the MACUSA Auror exam. Potions and Transfiguration had been her downfall. She had scraped by in Charms, and only excelled in Herbology, a subject she had always had a natural talent for.
"How do people master so many complex spells and potions?" she wondered, a familiar wave of frustration washing over her. "Well, no matter. If I can solve this massacre, they'll have to accept me into the Auror office, rules or no rules!"
Her resolve hardened. Everyone had their own motivations. For Julia, it was a combination of a genuine desire for justice and a burning ambition to become an Auror.
She pulled out a magical map, pinpointed her location, and estimated the remaining distance. Two more Apparitions should do it. But the western shore of Lake Huron was a vast area, a coastline that would require many more jumps to cover completely.
"I will solve this mystery," she said to herself, "for the innocent people who died, and for my dream of becoming an Auror. You can do this, Julia. You're a Wilkinson."
With her spirits restored, she set off again. As she drew closer, she realized her memory had been correct. The western shore of Lake Huron was heavily populated by No-Majs, with industries built around the lake's natural resources. There were no wizarding settlements here, only a few scattered vacation homes.
"I was right, there are no communities here. Perhaps it was a group of families on a trip, and they were ambushed?" Unable to form a clear theory, she began to visit the few wizarding residences she knew of in the area, one by one.
Back at MACUSA, in the office of the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Benjamin Wilkinson snapped the pen he was holding, driving the nib deep into his wooden desk. "You're telling me that one of my agents just saw Julia, by herself, heading to the Great Lakes to search for the site of the massacre?"
"Y-yes, sir," the stammering wizard replied, shrinking under his boss's furious glare. "He said he saw Miss Julia, and it looked like she was—"
"Get a team and bring her back!" Wilkinson roared. "Now!"
~~~
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