Rasim tilted his head and assessed the man he had flown from Siberia to find. The Northern Hawk Owl's job was only half-completed. This portion required both patience and the relentless application of subtle reminders that an answer was required. He would not leave this tall, broad shouldered man until there was a messaged tied to his leg or a package clasped in his talons.
Absently, Professor Montgomery "Gummy" Vance reached into the top right drawer of his desk and pulled out another two pieces of crocodile jerky. One piece he handed to the owl sitting on the corner of his desk; the other piece he, himself, began to chew. "I don't suppose they could wait until after the semester is over? " Gummy asked the owl. "I could bring it to them myself?" He would have preferred to have a first-hand look at what was going on in Siberia, anyway. It sounded fascinating.
Rasim swallowed the piece of jerky and held out one leg as if prepared to have a message tied to it then and there. He was no barn owl chick, fresh from the egg. He was a professional. He couldn't be bought or distracted with delicious crocodile jerky. He was expected to obtain an answer quickly and return to the Russian branch of the Sheta Sesh as quickly as possible -- standard procedure.
The Hogwarts professor sighed at the owl's reminder that when the Sheta Sesh made a request such as this, time was of the essence. "Fine, but I you need to deliver this into the hands of Dragunov Yuliy Timofeyevich. The Adze of Thoth has a bit of a kick to it; not just anyone can control it." The owl tilted his head to the left until it was nearly upside down and gently shook his outstretched leg. "I know. I know," Gummy said as he pulled out a quill and parchment. "Put it in writing. You're just the messanger."
By the time Gummy had his letter written, it was nearly time for class. He hastily dropped it into the box that contained the Adze of Thoth and closed the top. "Signatum Manum," the man solemnly intoned as he circled his wand three times. Brown smoke poured heavily from the wand tip and settled around the box, growing more and more solid until it suddenly cleared, revealing a package now covered in what appeared to be brown paper and tied with strong white cord. An elaborate seal on the top of the package pulsed dimly for a moment and then flared bright red. ”What the—?“ Gummy instinctively raised his wand and pivoted toward the classroom door.
Three students stood in the doorway with expressions that ranged from surprised to terrified. Professor Vance quickly lowered his wand and chuckled. “Terribly sorry. The seal is set to alarm if the package ends up with anyone other than the intended recipient. If you don’t mind, stay where you are until I get our Northern Hawk Owl friend out the window. If you get too close, it might explode and we’d lose a very useful historical artifact.” Seconds later, Rasim had grasped the package in his powerful talons. He bobbed his head once toward Professor Vance and flew out the window.
”There we go,” Gummy said as he closed the window behind the departing bird. ”You can come in now. It’s quite safe. I think you’ll like today’s lesson, Kyle. It’s about Roswell.”
”Too cool! Can you teach me that spell?” Kyle asked, far more interested in a spell that could glow bright red and explode than he was in aliens from the 1940s.
”And what was in that box, Professor?” Amy asked, quickly approaching his desk. What are you getting involved in now? she wondered, excited by the hint of mystery that always seemed to surround her favorite teacher.
”Oo, would you teach me that spell, too, please?” the third student, Zephyrus, added while picking up the books he had dropped in surprise. He had never had seen anyone transition so fluidly between bad-ass fighter and cheerful professor.
Gummy looked from one to the other. Curiosity was a good thing, but he wasn’t at liberty to tell them all that much. He decided to begin with what he could say. ”That was the Adze of Thoth. I’m loaning it to an old friend who has need of the artifact’s unique abilities. And that spell is rather impressive, isn’t it? I couldn’t wait to learn it, myself. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to teach it. My old employer would have my hide.” Other students had begun to fill the classroom. ”Sorry, you three. I’d teach you if I could. Why don’t you take your seats and we’ll get started with the lesson?”
After the class had settled into their seats and gotten their quills and note paper out, Professor Vance began. “As you know, the International Statute of Secrecy was enacted to hide the wizarding world from Muggles. Whether or not you agree with the statue is a topic of discussion for another day. What we certainly all agree on is that keeping magic and the wizarding world hidden can sometimes take quite a bit of work. The Ministry has witches and wizards trained to effectively deal with breaches. Creating a logical memory to seamlessly cover the witnessing of magic is an art form and best left to them. Today, we take it for granted that breaches will be skillfully handled and soon forgotten.”
Gummy leaned back against his desk with a wry smile. “Today we’re going to talk about how bad a breach can get and how much worse it can be made if it’s mishandled.” The professor gave his wand a quick twirl and flick. Papers fluttered onto the desks in front of each student.
The History of Magic students all looked down at the copies of the front page of the Roswell Daily Record from the eighth of July, 1947. The headline read, “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region”.
”What you are looking at,” Gummy explained, “is arguably the biggest foul-up in wizarding history. Breaches in the Statue of Secrecy are supposed to be quickly forgotten. This one became famous in the Muggle world. Tourists still flock from all over the world to the town of Roswell in the American southwest to see where the flying saucer crashed and be close to where one of the greatest modern-day military cover-ups and government conspiracies happened. Muggles still create television programs and movies that feature this event and even hold a festival each year in this little town in the New Mexico desert to commemorate the Roswell event.” The professor turned to Kyle with a broad, expectant grin. ”I’m hoping our class-expert on aliens can give us a synopsis of what Muggles say occurred.”
Kyle had straightened up in his seat when the eyes of the class turned to him, and there was an unmistakable hint of pride in his voice when he began to speak. ”I do know a bit about the event, sir. There are a lot of Muggle TV shows about it. In 1947, on the Fourth of July, American Independence Day, witnesses saw something large and bright crash into the desert near Roswell. A day or two later, a rancher found some very strange debris on his ranch, where the object had crashed. He and a couple other guys brought it back to his house and then brought it to the Air Force base nearby. The Air Force investigated and brought in a lot more of the debris – which might have included alien bodies. The Air Force wrote a press release saying they had captured an alien craft. Word of the flying saucer crash spread like wildfire through the newspapers, but then suddenly, there was a big crack-down. The government came in and it was hushed up. Then they showed pictures of some lame weather balloon that they said had been mistaken for an alien craft. Except, even today, no one believes them because too many people saw too much and the government couldn’t hide it all."
”Nicely done, Kyle. Take 10 points for Ravenclaw for that excellent summary. Except, I’d like to add that some people do think it was a weather balloon. Other people think it was a top secret military aircraft that crashed during testing. But, yes, a lot of Muggles do believe it was an alien spaceship. Does anyone know what it actually was?” None of the students raised a hand, but Kyle’s eyes were huge and Gummy was afraid he might actually fall out of his seat. ”Jude’s Academy. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a wizarding school located in the American Southwest. The New Mexico desert was selected for its remote location. That is one of the few sensible decision made by its founder, a wizard known as Jude the Imprudent. He is also occasionally referred to as Jude the Blithering Idiot, but that epithet is nearly always used by his detractors.”
Kyle was definitely about to burst with curiosity, so Gummy continued quickly, “Jude's Academy students are an interesting lot and it’s considered best to have them spend most of the year in the relative safety of the open desert. Consequently the Fourth of July coincides with the academy’s end of term celebration. The high point of the celebration, up until 1947, was a competition between the houses for the best prank.” Stifled giggles bubbled up among the students. Gummy didn’t blame them. It really did sound like a fun way to end a year of lessons. ”The winning prank in 1947 involved magical fireworks, a bathtub, a grindylow and a pair of the Headmaster’s underwear. At any rate, the whole kit and caboodle went shooting off into the desert as the entire school cheered.” Gummy looked up at the clock and wondered where the time had gone.
”No one would have thought twice about bright lights on the Fourth of July, but the Head of House for the winning team decided picking up the wreckage could wait until after his vacation. That was imprudent move number one. Then, when the rancher was spotted loading up wreckage into his pick-up truck, instead of alerting the proper authorities, the remaining Jude’s Academy staff members decided to just take care of it themselves. That was their second mistake. Their third mistake was not putting together a simple, boring story to use as implanted memories. Instead, there was a lot of embellishment, and far too much creativity. Muggles ‘remembered’ bodies, feather-light I-beams, glowing purple symbols, unearthly materials, and men dressed in black who threatened witnesses and made things disappear.”
The bell rang and students began to rise from their seats. “Please consider this a cautionary tale. Making mistakes is one thing. Covering them up is another. And doing a piss poor job of covering them up is something else entirely. Homework is on the back of the newspaper articles and is due by May 7th.”
Professor Vance turned slowly to look out the classroom window. A large, sleek white bird with a smooth black head, neck and wing tips was perched on the window sill. Its long black beak again struck the glass.
Turning back to the class, he twirled his wand and pointed it at the wall opposite the windows. An image appeared that depicted Horus and Seth in their final battle. Seth was on the ground and Horus loomed over him with one foot planted in the middle of Seth’s chest, about to strike the killing blow.