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Brown’s Hotel, London, Magical Britain [The Next Day, 1980]
–Scott Winters–
His eyes snapped open, on the dot at 6:00, he could tell without even looking, especially since the alarm began beeping a moment later. Counting small victories since that was the secret to remaining happy, he hopped off the mattress and landed seamlessly on the ground or rather, that was what should have happened.
Instead, he almost fell face first if not for the wandless charm he cast on his clothes, saving him from a swollen face or a broken tooth. After that, he, or rather, his advanced magical freshening up kit did its magic on his face as he bathed and got dressed up.
After all, today he had to go to the embassy and if the things he had heard about the US consulate in London were right, John was in for a pretty shocking experience. It would shock most people about how often Americans thought of the rest of the world, even if they were wizards and then those people would realise the simple vastness of America, understanding why Americans didn’t bother to go abroad or even get a passport for most people.
It was simply because America was so vast and so varied that they simply didn’t need to go anywhere else. They could cross a State and it would be as if they entered a different English speaking country, such was the variation.
That is probably why even wizards like John, who could teleport or get someone to teleport them for a fee, were so awestruck by going to foreign countries. It was simply cheaper to roam around in America instead of getting on a flight.
Doubly so for John, since most Wizards didn’t trust the flying contraptions that the No-Maj built, and a worrying amount outright refused to believe that they existed. He had even met some people, in Greenwich Village itself, telling themselves and anyone who would listen, that there were squads of wizards in each and every one of the planes, powering it with their magic so that it could fly, and someday, the wizards were going to make a mistake and metal planes were going to rain down on everyone.
“Ah, finally.” He said as he saw John arrive for breakfast, which opened up at 7 sharp. The man looked harried yet also was dressed impeccably, knowing that they were probably going to meet Rothschild today, and the man was anything but pleasant to talk to, especially since they were only going to add to the pile of paperwork he had on his desk.
He counted that as a small victory as well.
“You’re late,” He said as he took a sip of his freshly squeezed orange juice. Funnily enough, Oranges tasted different here and in Manhattan.
“Well, forgive me, dear sir, someone thought it appropriate to dump some information on me and then shut the door on me without giving me any context,” John snarked as he ordered the Omelette and also Orange juice.
Copycat.
“I just thought that you would need all the sleep you could get since it would be a long flight home.” John rolled his eyes at him so hard he feared that his eyeballs might fall out of his head.
Plus, he also had to stay up and guard their rooms and the hotel at large because he knew there was a possibility that he was tracked, especially since the British Ministry still had their time trackers.
But he had something they didn’t and that is the ability to blend in with the common population, something that almost no wizards in Magical Britain have, not even the No-maj borns because Magical Britain and Hogwarts as a whole had a primary purpose that worked excellently.
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The education and the political posing were all secondary. The primary purpose was to make sure that the majority of new wizards, the No-Maj born integrated perfectly into the wizarding society, so much so that Hogwarts basically crippled their ability to go back into the nonmagical world and stay there for long periods of time.
Even their yearly breaks were barely a week long and the rest of the time, there was total magical silence on both ends. Letters were all screened, not the noble kids no but the No-Maj borns were fair game since they had no authority they could complain to and also because their parents could disseminate the information to other unsuspecting No-Majs.
It was all a very successful scheme since the nobles needed someone to do the jobs that no one else would and they would never bring in No-Majs to do their jobs. Hence, the No-Maj born came into the picture. Their educations were all sponsored, with the stipulation being that they completed all the seven years of Hogwarts, without fail. Oh, they could fail and even take drops but they had to get a certificate from Hogwarts and Hogwarts was very good at brainwashing everyone that entered its hallowed doors, no matter how bad the education might be.
Yeah, he had a very bad opinion of Hogwarts, contrary to what the wizards in MACUSA thought about it. Yeah, it was old and yes, it did house many mysteries, which was compounded by the fact that Dumbledore lived there, and had a fan following worldwide but it was not even close to being the top in either coolness factor or even education.
Japan’s Mahoutokoro was much, much better. He had a harder time against Japanese criminals than any other criminal on the planet simply because their school had a much more rigorous and strict combat training program that every single wizard had to take and pass, without fail. They were not allowed to practice magic in the No-Maj world without it.
It was also much more balanced as it included close combat skills as well, something that was only given to Aurors in MACUSA, and even then, it was nowhere near as rigorous as Mahoutokoro’s training.
That school made sure that each and every one of its wizards would be able to fight for itself since the wizards had abandoned the Emperor before Japan was defeated by the No-Maj using a weapon that he could only describe as apocalyptic. To this day, there was a permanent squad of ICC researchers and Unspeakables who worked on reversing the damage done to Japan.
They had limited success and were on their way to getting a complete solution in a few decades if they were lucky. It was all very fascinating as he had read their research a bunch of times using his high clearance given by MACUSA.
One of the many things that he would miss if he strayed in MAgical Britain.
He shook his head slightly, “Are you Ok?”
He looked up as John peered up at him in concern, mid sip of his Orange Juice.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Now, eat up, I hear that the ride we are going to take is a bumpy one.”
“Bumpy?”
He just smiled mysteriously.
…..
….
“Oh. Ohhhh,” John could only say that as they stood right outside the real US Consulate with the No-Maj coming in and out in droves.
“Are we at the wrong place?”
“Nope!” HE smiled cheekily and pushed John inside.
He followed the “Commercial Foreign Immigration Services Bureau for Others” sign, climbing two floors and finally reaching a floor that was almost empty save for the one desk manned by one man.
“Oh, please come in,” The man said with a plastic smile on his face that was reminiscent of the average service industry worker back home, in the States.
“It is my genuine pleasure,” He grinned back, only his was much more real as he pushed John to go past the desk, the man returning to his desk with the same plastic smile as if he was a robot and then strode to the door that appeared in his vision as soon as he crossed a black line on the ground.
“Where are we—Ohh,” John said as the door, the shiny golden door appeared in front of them.
He gestured at the door to John“After you,” John looked suspicious but did not question it as he opened the door and put one foot inside, and then…..fell down.
“AAAAAaaaa!”
“Hey! You fell down yet?” He shouted into the tunnel before faltering as he too felt an impact on his back, pushing him into the tunnel. Turning around, he gave the middle finger to the wizard who was looking at him with an all too pleased of an expression with his wand pointed at Scott.
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