Chapter 56 : The Not-So-Golden-Trio

[Author note : It's difficult to write these days... I'm still on time. Mostly. But I struggle to find the words and ideas... I think I'm mentally exhausted because of work.

Anyways, you can still read 10 chapters ahead on my Patréon page (e instead é). Simply search for Cathbel. Please leave a comment or review to tell me what you think. Enjoy !]

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Not even a year had passed after the Battle of Hogwarts, and many in the United Kingdom found themselves utterly changed. In fact, not just the people, the institutions and customs found themselves almost completely changed overnight with the number of Noble houses falling. Their conservationism and bigotry, prevalent in the Ministry before, almost disappeared or was hidden now. Harry and Ron, who had joined the Auror office had been hunting former Death Eaters with a passion. Their friends, colleagues and superiors even had several nicknames for them. The Fearsome Duo, the Invicibles, The-Duo-Who-Hunt-Them-All… Even the Prematures, because they started their fights with Voldemort before they came of age.

For Harry, not much had changed. Now that the Horcruxe was gone, his temper was much better, he was feeling at peace and his relationship with Ginny was only growing closer and closer. As did Ron's relationship with Hermione. While most of their Hogwart's friends seem to lose touch with each other as time passed, they did not, since now they were slowly becoming a family.

As for Ronald Bilius Weasley, he was perhaps one of those who changed the most. Harry didn't know if it was Hermione's influence or not (they both denied it was…), but Ron had become a bookworm. Or rather, he read every newspapers he could get his hands on. Not only that, he was also reading books and manuals ! It was truly shocking ! Especially given the fact that most of those books were muggle ones and military ones at that ! Harry had tried to read one, once… He found it an awful read !

Ron, on the other hand, took out a lot from it it seemed. In their war against the remnants of Voldemort's army, he was the planner. Harry mostly winged it, like he did most of his youth. It still seemed to work. However, he couldn't deny that, with Ron's planning now, things went comparably easier, it seemed.

Of course, not all of his plans succeeded. Sometimes, they had to discard them before even the beginning of the operation because, according to Ron, no plan survives first contact with the enemy… Harry was pretty sure he stole this quote somewhere. Besides, it didn't prevent him from trying very hard to plan for every and all eventualities, making plans within plans, within plans. It was actually a little difficult for the former Boy-Who-Lived to remember it all most of the time.

Another thing which changed for Ron, like Harry's other best friend, Ron's girlfriend, he was starting to show interest in politics. Harry truly found this disgusting. Most of his young lives, Harry's existence had been used in one way or another. And in the last few years, politicians were the worst of the worst ! Fudge used him to discredit Dumbledore while Amelia Bones did the opposite. Writers, philosophers and wannabe politicians had written in lengths about him to sell books…

Needless to say, there were little else than he disliked more than politics. So, his two friends' interests in it left him a little put off. Though, like their personality and talents, their interests in it varied as well. Hermione was interested in the political ideas and philosophies because she was interested in bringing the Wizarding world out of the dark times they were stuck in since the Statute of Secrecy was started. Ron, on the other hand, was more interested in the political movements and maneuvers, as he saw them as another form of battle and use of tactics. According to him, he could use those insights to find out which people were still helping the Death Eaters in the shadows.

If Harry was the better fighter of the two, oftentimes saving his partner's life, he couldn't deny that Ron made his life a whole lot easier in their auror career. And it all started during their academy days…

Harry remembered how one day, he had discovered Ron reading a newspaper for the first time. He was so engrossed in his reading that he didn't notice Harry enter the room, nor him pausing in silence, unable to process the image he was seeing. The most surprising, though… It was a muggle newspaper : The Times.

Ron had this theory, now… It was strangely similar to Edgar Stark's theory. Not that Harry pointed this out, since Ron was pretty proud of his 'discovery'. According to him, muggles weren't far from accomplishing things Wizarding kind could do with magic, but through science. In Harry's mind, however, they were a lot of things at which muggles were better… Like killing each other.

Sure, wizards had curses, potions and stuff. In ancient times, with dark magic, they had the ability to target entire families with a curse, or a particular bloodline. They also had magical diseases or curses that could propagate through contact, like werewolfism. However, when it came to indiscriminate killing ? Muggles had them beat, hands down !

Ever evolving bio and chemical warfare, new and improved guns, more lethal bullets, not to mention Weapons of Mass Destruction or WMDs. If they saw willed, they could destroy entire towns with the push of a button ! Moreover, with the use of their vehicles such as fighter planes, warships, they could unleash a destruction on a scale Wizarding kind could never hope to reach…

So, the idea that muggles were starting to accomplish things they did by magic… It wasn't so much eye-opening as it was chilling. Because it would mean that, like Ned had pointed out so long ago, they were about to obtain the means to reveal the Wizarding World !

Of course, Ron and Hermione saw it too… So, the Golden Trio had decided to work on a contingency, even if it meant being considered as criminals by the Ministry of Magic !

* * * * *

A small town in the Badlands, US of A.

Like the cocky teenager with tremendous power he was, Bunker decided to take the fight to the enemy. The brain-dead, mind and/or body controlled, enemy. Carried away by the idea of teaming up with one of his idol, he didn't pay much attention to how much power he used, or how much damage he inflicted upon the poor civilians he was fighting. It was actually difficult to even tell, if he remembered that they were, in fact, just civilians. Maybe he was just seeing paper targets or dummies in his mind…

Robin, being the base human that he was, couldn't exactly jump into a crowd, especially when he didn't know whether or not the devices were linked together. For all he knew, they all had some kind of hive mind… In which case, it would prove very difficult for him to fight them !

So, the boy wonder bided his time, guarding the wagon against any intrusions, as that would mean risking Cecile. Risking Cecile what ? Not really sure… Her life ? Or the life of the civilians that would attack her not of their own volition. Perhaps both.

Ever since the drama in the sewers, Cecile had remained unconscious, thanks (mostly) to Robin and his liberal use of anesthetics. And, when they started their journey by train, she had weaved her cocoon while Robin was dozed off. He was actually surprised, and a little annoyed when he discovered what she'd done !

But now… He'd rather she stayed safely tucked inside her cocoon. On this day, Robin fought fiercely. He always did fight like this, but on this occasion it was perhaps the most effective and powerful he was… At the time, he didn't have time to notice. He weaved between the mindless opponents, laying them down with precise and swift take-downs, knocked them off the train, or simply diverted their attention. His moves were so precise, so calculated, Robin wasn't nearly as overwhelmed as he should have been…

If it were Gotham, knowing that Batman was out there, he would have never been able to achieve something like. Because, no matter how 'hands off' Batman's training was, Dick knew he wouldn't let him get hurt. He'd do anything to prevent that, simply because it was second nature to the man, now. He might lay down the hurt on criminals and degenerates, but civilians and those he wished to protect…

So, now, knowing that there was no safety net, Richard Grayson, son of the amazing flying Graysons, was flying more freely and beautifully than ever before !

When it was over, and the trio was safely out of the danger zone, Robin finally came out of the zone… And he noticed :

« Who are you ? » He asked an african-american teenager accompanying him and bunker.

« My name is Cecile Patterson. » She answered with a good amount of fear and confusion. « Where are we ? What happened to me ? »