[HP AU]

[mnt_raph]

"An' you're sure this is the right address?" Raph asks again, for what Mike thinks might be the millionth time.

"Yes, I'm sure Raph. For like the millionth times. I told you," the smaller boy says sighing. "I read the map. I followed Donnie's instructions to the letter. Just...be still, look tough, and try not talk so much. Your accent kind of a dead give away that we're tourists, okay?"

"Bite me, Mikey."

"You'd probably like that too much," he says with a waggle of his eyebrows as he presses the doorbell of the Montoya's East London home.

Comments

[mnt_don]

"A magical dampening array. Or...something like it," Don says adjusting some of the arithmancy written in the margins of the parchment.

"Don's kind of afraid that the moment Leo touches that portkey all the bells and whistles attached to Him and Magic are going to off at once," Mike explains.

"I don't want to be dead in the water before we even get on the boat."

"Which, you know...good plan all around."

[interrogoiterum]

"Well, how do the bells and whistles work?" Renee asks. "Are they stronger than the usual alarms that watch out for underage magic?"

[mnt_don]

"Thaaaat's kind of part of the problem. We don't know," Mike says with a deflating sigh.

"Figuring that out wasn't really high on our list of priorities given our time frame and the nature of our plan."

[interrogoiterum]

"So instead of trying to figure that out, you're trying to minimise the magic of the portkey?"

Just so she knows what page they're on.

[mnt_mike]

"We're hoping it doesn't come to that," Don admits, though...his theory isn't as sound as he'd like it to be.

"The idea is that it's just Leo that'll get dampened, and the rest of us will pull him through...somehow.

...

Don't look at me. My job is making the tracker and being adorable," says Mike, his hands go up in a surrender.

"Some additional warning about this would have been appreciated."

[interrogoiterum]

Dryly, "you think she should've notified you before getting into trouble?"

[mnt_mike]

"I don't think it's Dinah Don's talking about," Mike says mildly.

"Professor Ross handed a portkey to a teenaged lovesick boy with authority problems and a history of making rash decisions when emotionally compromised.

And I'm not even going anywhere near the fact that Leo's been lying to us with regards to his relationship with Dinah. Especially the fact that he had a hunch something was wrong when he hadn't heard from her recently."

[interrogoiterum]

"Right."

Renee leans back onto Mike's shoulder.

"Yeah, I want to know what the hell is up with Professor Ross, too. How does an ex Quidditch player even get that stuff?"

[mnt_don]

"That makes two of us, unfortunately that's a secondary mission as far as I'm concerned. Finding Dinah is our top priority."

Because if they don't, they're likely to lose Leo completely.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee looks up at Don.

Her expression basically amounts to Well, duh

"We are never going to find her sitting in a bar in the East End of London."

[mnt_don]

"As per usual, we're waiting on them," Don says putting the finishing touches on a bit of spellwork.

Mike takes this golden opportunity to turn around and take a glance back at his brothers.

Raph and Leo are sitting side by side looking back in the direction of where they think the tables are. Leo is, as per usual, expressionless. Raph is nursing another water, of all things.

"Leo? Raph? Over here," Mike calls over to them. They slide off their chairs and head over.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee holds her hand out first to Raph as he approaches.

"Can I borrow your wand? I'm turning a map into a GPS."

[mnt_leo]

Raph doesn't bat an eye before handing his wand over to Renee.

"What's this all about?" Leo asks for him.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee does the same for Raph's wand as she did for Mike and Don: a jab into the map and a red question mark appears and disappears.

"One, I've never been to this city and I want to know where I am at all times," Renee says. "Two, there's five of us and we're probably not going to stay together so it helps to keep track of where people are because three, if there's serious trouble to get into it I bet geese to galleons you guys will get into it.

"It'll only work for the people it's set to track. No one else can even use the map."

[mnt_leo]

He looks to Raph, who just shrugs. He trusts Renee as much as family, and it's not like Raph's ever gone the extra mile to ward his wand. Heck, if it wasn't for his brothers he'd have absolutely no problem walking away from the Wizarding world all together.

Leo takes his wand from his sleeve, whispers a charm in Japanese, and then offers it to Renee.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee smiles at Leo, appreciating what this means, and does the same for him.

Then she stands up.

"I gotta make a phone call," she says. "I'll be outside."

[mnt_leo]

Leo bows his head slightly when she gives him back his wand.

Raph downs the rest of his water. "I'm coming with you. Need to borrow your phone. Donnie," he holds his hand out for the gadget he knows he brother has somewhere on his person.

Don's shoulders rise and fall with his sigh, as he reaches into a pocket on the inside of his jacket, and hands over a small bit of tech.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee didn't really want Raph to follow. She doesn't stop him, but she does leave before he's got what he wants from Don, hurrying downstairs and into the street, away from the disruptive effect magical environments have on muggle mobiles.

By the time Raph catches up with her, she's standing with the phone to her ear, quietly listening to a loud stream of Spanish coming out from the speaker.

[mnt_raph]

You don't need to understand Spanish to understand what's likely coming from the other end of Renee's phone. He keeps his distance, opting instead to look as aloof as possible at any passers by that should happen to come along.

Raph begins to wonder where that girl got off to...

[interrogoiterum]

Renee sees him, and lifts her hand to say hi. Then, in a voice that's steady despite the tears in her eyes, she says:

"I'll be back soon, Mum. I love you."

When she hangs up, she offers the phone directly to him. "What are you going to do?"

[mnt_raph]

He doesn't acknowledge the tears, though he does see them.

"Gonna make a collect call," he says taking the phone and attaching the device to it with a snap. There's a pause before he starts dialing due to the fact that he has no idea how to dial out of the UK.

"How the fuck do I dial international again?"

[interrogoiterum]

"Oh give it here."

She can't help it, even if it's someone like Raph, there's a twitch every time she sees a wizard play with a muggle artifact.

Touching the Don device just for the look of it, she keys in the + sign.

"America, right? Here." After adding the 1, she hands the phone back.

[mnt_raph]

Raph can use a phone, thankyouverymuch. He, like most Americans, just can't dial international...is all.

"Yeah, New York. 718-555-1228."

[interrogoiterum]

She proffers the phone again. "Dial it yourself, llamaface."

[mnt_raph]

Renee gets one of Raph's infrequent thanks, as he takes the phone and dials.

There's waiting while the call connects, and then rings.

"Yo, Case-man. What's goin' on, man?"

"'Course it's Raph, who the fuck else did you think it was gonna be from this number?"

"Yeah, whatever, chowderbrain. Look, I'm callin' in that favor. we're coming back. Like soon. Like tonight soon. Yeah, all of us....plus one," he says looking up at Renee.

"We're gonna need a pick-up an' crash space."

"Whatever, just so long as it ain't infested. ... Oh shut the fuck up, asshole."

"No, we ain't comin' in by no damn airport. How many times I gotta tell you that ain't how this all works. Jus'...just shut up. We'll call when we're in. Later."