Hogwarts AU: New York City

[serinusniger]

It's been days.

She doesn't know how many. But if must have been days. There's been food, there's been the occasional sleep.

Not enough of either.

Dinah has told them... she can't remember right now quite what she has told them, but it feels like she's told them everything. Like there's nothing in her lefty to tell them. She'd tell them more, if they asked her.

She gave up trying to escape a long time ago. She gave up hoping for a rescue not long after.

Now she's just waiting, and hoping it ends soon.

Comments

[mnt_raph]

"We ain't goin' far," says Raph as he turns back around and puts on his seat belt.

"Nah, we're just to Hell's Kitchen. Won't take long. Ain't like we're going to Jersey or anything."

"especially the way he drives," Mike adds under his breath.

"I heard that, Mikey. You know you're always welcome to get out an' walk, if you don't like my driving."

[interrogoiterum]

Renee shrugs and puts the book back in her pocket, but not after nudging Mike in the ribs briefly with a smirk.

[mnt_don]

The rest of the ride is pretty uneventful.

Raph and Casey keep their own company by mostly discussing Muggle sporting related activities. At one point there's a play by play digression of the last Yankees' game.

Don spends most of his time fiddling with the knobs of something that looks suspiciously like a Star Trek tri-corder.

Leo is quiet, his attention focused on the buildings that pass by at a break-neck pace.

Mike attempts to be as entertaining as possible to Renee.

Until eventually the cab comes to a screeching halt outside a rather unimpressive looking brownstone.

"We're here. Casa sweet casa. Okay here's the deal. This is my Mom's place. She lives on the first floor, but I've got the whole basement apartment to myself. We just gotta get in the house without her hearing us, otherwise there'll be questions."

He shifts the rear-view mirror around to take a gander at what everyone is wearing.

"Any purple or red you got on you should take off or cover. This is Purple Dragon territory."

[interrogoiterum]

"Oooh, exciting."

Renee lives in East London, so she's used to gangs. This is proper New York gang activity though, so it's very West Side Story. She gives herself a quick glance over on her way out of the cab, and looks up at the building in front of her.

She can be quiet. And she knows her boys can, too.

[mnt_leo]

"These guys don't dance," Mike says to Renee, knowing exactly where her mind went. "I know because I've asked them."
Zing!

"Pipe down, Mikey," grumbles Raph.

Then, all suave like...so really the opposite of that, Casey exits the cab, and makes his way for the small set of stairs that leads to a basement doorway under the elevated stoop.

Normally it'd be Mike who took point, but Raph's more familiar with this place and switches on all the lights as he comes into the room. Everyone else files in one by one, until eventually Casey locks and bolts the door.

Casey's apartment looks exactly like what you'd expect a bachelor pad of someone like Casey to look like. There's a wall of quasi-functional tvs on one side of the room, a beat up fifth hand couch holding court on the other. Pizza and take out containers are everywhere, and the only cold thing in the fridge is beer.

[interrogoiterum]

"Then they're no friends of mine."

WHAT.

Renee follows Raph in, and is pulling her matches back out of her pocket by the time Casey is locking the door. Then she lights one, and gives it a waves around before shaking it vigorously put, letting the smoke thin out and fill the room, until it clings gently to the walls and stays there.

"A'right, room's clear." And in the next moment she's pulling her wand out. "Scourgify."

Because really.

[mnt_mike]

"I knew I loved you for a reason." Mike's grin is damn near audible.

"Hey! My stuff!" Casey goes around trying to catch some of the containers of food that might still have something edible inside.

Don looks up from his tricorder.
"Wow, that was faster than I thought it'd be."

"Faster than you thought what would be?"

"I thought There'd at least be a thirty count before she cleaned the place. I owe you five bucks, Leo."

Leo, who's stayed by the door...just smirks.

"Donnie you ain't never been here before," Raph says. "How'd you know what it was going to look like?"

"I might not have been here before, but...I have met Casey."

[interrogoiterum]

"Would have done it in the taxi but I wasn't gonna waste a match."

Renee throws herself down on the couch, and pulls out the folded paper from her pocket.

"Accio beer." Then she glances at Leo. "So what now, fearless leader?"

[mnt_mike]

The only thing funnier than watching Casey attempt and save a flying four-day-old-slice of meat lovers pizza from a cleaning spell is the look on his face when his fridge opens on its own and a beer comes flying out.

"Hey! I didn't sign on for all this flying and magic!"

Heck, even Raph is laughing.

"Quit you're squawkin'. You know you're gonna get compensated for this, you knob."

"Handsomely," Don adds.

Leo sighs. "Now? Now I guess we follow any leads we have."

"Well it's a good thing we've only got the one then, huh?" Oh Mike, ever the optimist.

Raph goes to the fridge and fetches two more beers, which he then opens on the edge of Casey's kitchen counter. He hands one to his friend and keeps one for himself. Everyone else can get their own drinks.

"Casey, we've been out of circulation for a while. What's at C & 9th these days?"

Casey thinks while he drinks.
"Nothing to write home about. Couple of parks, couple of restaurants."

Don looks up from his gizmo.
"What kind of parks? Neat and tidy numbers? Or overgrown and kind of wild?"

"The second one. Big tall weeping willows on the corners. Why?"

Don and Leo share a look.

[interrogoiterum]

"So just going there's out of the question, huh? Unless you wizkids know how to break a fidelius charm."

Renee unfolds the paper carefully and lays it out on the seat of the couch next to her.

She had intended just to study it, but when it unfolds itself, the creases from the quartering are gone.

"Huh."

[mnt_raph]

"Huh, indeed," says Don, who wastes no time crossing the room with his tricorder out.

"Casey, stay back. Mike?" Leo turns to look at his youngest brother. "Wand out, healing charms at the ready."

"Just hold still, Renee," Raph warns, his wand at the ready.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee rolls her eyes at Raph.

"Didn't we already check this?" she asks. But she stays perfectly still, once her wand is back in her hand.

[mnt_don]

"We did, yes. Which is why I'm more than a little disconcerted." Don turns a dial or two, and the tricorder bips.

"We weren't in a charm field last time," adds Mike from where he stands outside of the potential blast radius.

[interrogoiterum]

"It's an obfuscating field," Renee says. "It makes all spells invisible from the... oh."

Before she can finish, the footprint on the paper starts changing: expanding and morphing until it becomes an oval frame, in which the face of yet another red haired man appears.

[mnt_leo]

They're all quiet, staring in disbelief, when Casey breaks the silence.

"Who's that guy?"

[interrogoiterum]

No one answers, except the man in question, who speaks up quickly in a West Coast accent. His eyes stay focused on nothing, and he responds to no one in the room.

"Fuck this. I'm serious. This is a whole fucking mess and I guarantee the world is going to pay for this.

"I don't know who the hell you are listening to this. But you'd better he twice as good as Trickshot says you are if you're going to get her out of this, okay?"

He looks over his shoulder furtively. "Look, they abandoned her, you get that? They sent her after the fucking F... well, they let her follow a lead that they knew would get her killed. I'm going to get you an address and stick it on this message, but you better get her out with as much noise and as much violence as you possibly can.

"Just get the Pretty Bird out, okay? Remem..."

He's about to say more, but the recording cuts off abruptly. From one corner, the paper starts to curl, blackening and glowing orange.

[mnt_mike]

"Well...I don't know who the fuck this guy is, but I like him already," Says Raph as he stows his wand up his sleeve and goes back to drinking his beer.

"No no no nonononono!" Sadly no amount of Don's tinkering will get the paper stop burning and finish reciting the recording.

"Give it up, dude. We're not getting anymore out of that thing." Mike claps Casey on the shoulder. "You are now free to move about the cabin."

Leo has turned pale. He swallows hard.
They sent her after... and Pretty Bird replay over and over again in his mind. He shakes his head to clear it, and then starts issuing orders.

"Michaelangelo. Ward this place as strongly as you can. Outside too. I want this place harder to break into than the Salem Academy, and then some.

Raphael, you and Casey go with Mike. Find the best sightlines, and tell me where we're going to need to keep watch."

"Donatello. I want your ear to the Wireless. Have they figured out we're gone yet. Do they suspect we're here. And anything you can find out about local Tweakers who'd know anything about those parks."

"Renee..." It's clear that by this point Leo's resolve is tapped. Just utterly and completely tapped. Dinah's in trouble. Real trouble. Trouble with a name and a face Leo knows all too well. For a moment he just looks so utterly lost.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee rolls off the couch in one smooth motion and points first at Leo and then at the cushions. "Get. Raph'll keep an eye out, Don'll keep an ear out. Me n'Mike'll make this place invisible. We'll even go check that Fidelius charm is well and truly impenetrable.

"You're gonna be useless unless you get a recharge. No one's going anywhere without you, boss."

[mnt_leo]

Leo watches her, his eyes tracking the motion of her hands as she orders him to sit on the couch. He doesn't get it. Someone is trying to take care of him and he just doesn't understand.

It's not until Mike sidles over and places a hand on Leo's lower back and steers him towards the couch that he understands.

"it's okay bro, we got this," Mike whispers to Leo, as the taller boy does eventually sit. Mike then reaches into a pocket and produces a Flake bar. "Here, it'll help."

Mike pats his brother on the head before extending his arm to Renee.

"Did I ever tell you how I broke into the Salem Academy?" His smile could charm the pants of the Grey Lady herself.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee smirks as she slips her hand into his. "Oh just a few thousand times, by my count."

She turns her head away from Leo and leaves him to himself. Before they actually go out, she'll probably drop a sleep charm on him so he gets some rest, but right now they've got work to do.

"You do for defence, I'll go for stealth?"

[mnt_mike]

"And it just keeps getting better, every time I tell it," he says with a lopsided grin. Mike holds the door open for her while she casts her sleep charm. It's only after Leo's already starting to drift off that he answers her question.

"That'll work, but...we're going to need to double up because there's a whole mess of wards these Foot guys have that'll cut the usual stuff up like wet tissue paper.

Seriously Renee, these guys are no joke."

[interrogoiterum]

"I'm not known for my sense of humour," Renee says dryly. She nods, however, glancing over her shoulder at the door and holding her wand to her face as she works out a few good charms.

"Mike?"

[mnt_mike]

Mike drums his fingers on a nearby wall as he thinks. Always in some form of motion, this one.

"...yeeaah?"

[interrogoiterum]

Renee casts a couple of her strongest protective charms before she says:

"We're in trouble, aren't we?"

[mnt_mike]

The only sound that comes from Mike is the rapid fire sound of Vagueness and Latin as he casts a baseline layer of protection and then a warning layer on top of that.

"...yeah, we really kind of are."

The casting stops, and he turns to look towards her.

"You know, you...you don't have to do this. Right? I mean, this is...if you wanted out no one would judge you."