Chapter 62.1- Doom Days

The rest of the gala passed without incident. I watched both Okonkwo and Sirius throughout. Sirius, ever the social butterfly, seemed to enjoy how he was being ferried from table to table all through the night. Everyone seemed curious about the escaped convict, Sirius Black who turned out to be the former, but not much of the latter. I’d already counted two who had been unnaturally curious about how he’d made it out. I’d keep my eyes on them as well in case they got moved to try something. At least I was sure that Sirius could take care of himself to some extent. He was almost as good a duelist as I was— as long as I didn’t use anything on the upper levels of my ability. So that probably meant he’d have an easy enough time facing anyone not a fully trained professional wizard hunter.

Okonkwo, on the other hand, was not being ferried from place to place in as much as she drew people to her like a magnet. She had estimated the range of my aversion ward quite accurately, finding the man and woman from before right outside it— what did she call them again? The Mafells? And as she stood with them, more and more people came. She was the new toy, the new thing, and when I had thought I was saving her from exploitation, it turned out she had a full understanding of what was going on.

I could respect it, even if I would never be able to relate with it. She wanted gold to help her people, but she was a powerful witch. Why not do the studying herself and help them. Enchanting a green house couldn’t be that hard. Couldn’t be much harder than conjuring a magical plant could it? And I’d seen her do the latter during her duel with Cece. I took the last sip from my glass, and tore down my ward with a flick of my wrist. Not having the waiters pass me by wasn’t good for business. Or for my continued enjoyment of this place.

“There you are Mr.Potter” I heard the voice behind me. I turned slowly, not allowing it to show in my body language that the voice had startled me. It hadn’t even been more than a few seconds since I dropped the ward.

“Mr. Julian Russo” I said in greeting, inclining my head at him. He was a competent administrator and organizer, and that was something worthy of respect at the very least.

“You are a shockingly hard boy to find in such a small hall” He said. I found my left eyebrow lifting of its own accord even as my wand ached to shatter his bones against the ground. And I did mean my wand in this case. I could feel how much it wanted to rip this man apart. I was sure that If I grabbed on to the hilt and fed it some magic with no other intent, it would do the job on its own.