9

As you're flipping through the warding book a scrap of paper falls out with a wizarding ad stating "If you've been enjoying learning how to ward your home, try learning how to enchant items! Try Kwick-and-Dirty Enchanting for Fun and Profit!" To your amazement, summoning the book from the book compartment actually works. You do a bit of reading and manage to get the basics of the simple enchanting it describes down with a minimum of fuss. It really is the very basics—you're not going to be creating a vanishing cabinet, much less the Sorting Hat—but you should be able to make one-shot enchanted items as well as shield hats or rings or the like.

As you're getting ready for the party you go digging through the clothes section of your trunk. The skin-contact thing with your wand worked pretty well with some of the spells you used you'd like to find a second wand holster so you can switch arms your wand is in. You manage to find not only a holster with a cut-out that will grant skin contact to the entire length of the wand, but a box of wands that's dusty enough to come out of Ollivander's shop. You wave a couple of them around and manage sparks from all of them, but only get more than a twinkle or two from a short, reddish-brown wand that shoots a great gout of sparks and nestles securely in the new holster.

You meet up with Derek at his dorm and are quickly introduced to his roommate and some of the other people going including Thor, his RA. Thor lives up to his namesake as a burly reddish-blonde dude with long hair and a braided beard. He's a hell of lot more chill than his Edda counterpart though, offering you a beer to pregame a bit and explaining that the house the party's at is about three blocks off of campus, not frat-related but in an area that rents to frats.

Everyone heads out around ten or so, walking as a group and joined by some of Derek's cousins and Vijay. Erica wanders over and gives you a nod, her sunglasses missing for once and her hair in a very emo-looking swoop over one eye. You head off campus in what ends up being the opposite direction from your apartment and show up only to get waved in immediately by one of the guys standing out front.

Like you'd expect of most parties the music is loud and people are everywhere on both floors and the backyard of the house. There is an actual DJ d-d-d-dropping the bass, a couple of kegs in the backyard with people doing stands, at least two games of beer pong and a fair number of drunk people dancing. You snag a beer instead of whatever's in the mystery punch and mingle a bit.

Erica isn't much for chatting, but Thor's pretty easy to talk to. He's a archeology major with a love of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy period and you feel like you've made a friend for life when you manage to remember the name of his favorite king—Penda. The two of you go on to convincingly beat Derek and yet another cousin of his at beer pong and gain two cheerleaders in Sarah and Susan. Thor gives you a fistbump and wanders off while you chat with the girls for a bit. They actually have a couple of other girls from their floor, and you're introduced as 'Mr. Magic Hands' to Soon-Yi, Savannah, Sierra, and Karen. You finish your beer and stare at all of them for a minute. "Are all of your names like some part of a joke I don't get? How do you all have names that start with S?"

Savannah, an 'honest-to-gawd' southern belle with blonde ringlets and blue eyes gives you a look that you'd believe was guileless if you hadn't taken the time to cast Legilimency. "What kind of name is 'Magic', Mister Hands?"

Everyone gets a good chuckle and most of the girls wander off to talk to people they know or get drinks. Susan stops you and pulls you aside. "Hey, I've told the girls not to get too wasted, but no matter what, none of them are doing anything with Derek or his cousins."

Now that sounded interesting. "He's been alright to me. What's his damage?"

"He's a wannabe pickup artist who likes putting girls down and calling them all kinds of names. He's pretty nasty about it too, and he's the better of them." She leans into your shoulder to keep from yelling everything over the techno. "His male cousins are worse. The girls are normally bitchy and married or engaged even as freshmen and always downplay any complaints. All of them cultivate in-groups around themselves and talk shit about anyone they don't like. They do good parties, but they're not good people."

You tell her you'll keep your eye out and she heads off to find some of her other friends. It's not so crowded that you can't find a quiet spot and try and Legilimence one of Derek's group. You manage to meet eyes with Nick, one of the many cousins and a junior for a moment and nurse a new beer as you touch his mind as lightly as you can. His attention is caught by a pretty Indian girl and his main thought process is trying to figure out how best to sleep with her. His fantasies are a bit violent, complete with slapping her and cumming on her face but he could just be an asshole. You can't probe to see if he gets erections while listening to Hitler speeches without him probably noticing so you drop the connection and wander outside again.

Maybe ten minutes later you're listening to Thor passionately explain why his nickname should actually be Thunor when somebody yells that the Merchants have broken in to the chemistry buildings back on campus. Everyone dives for phones and pulls up their news website of choice. Someone on PHO posting from a dorm nearby says the Merchants have actually hit both the Chemistry and Physics departments, which seems odd before someone mentions that BBU has a nuclear research reactor on campus. Still, you're off-campus, and research reactors aren't nukes. People are discussing if parts of campus will be blocked off after the Merchants leave when sirens start overpowering the music. Heads swivel as not just police sirens sound, but the slightly off tones of PRT vehicles. As it becomes obvious that something's coming your way gunshots are audible as well. You had managed to plant yourself near the fence and can see through the slats as something—maybe two invisible somethings—bounce off cars farther down the street and muzzle flashes pepper the night. There's a whoosh as a streak flies from farther down the street and strikes nothingness which explodes. The next few moments are chaos as more gunfire pops off and smoke billows as something slams in to a house halfway down the block. Some PRT vans and Armsmaster roar past presumably chasing the other invisible vehicle while more come to a stop and begin exchanging gunfire with the still-unseen Merchants.

While the house isn't directly in the crossfire, you need to worry about stray shots as well as possible invasion by Merchants looking for hostages. You can faintly hear a yell from inside the house that someone's been shot and everyone's looking panicky. Do you step in?