The End

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has anything to do with Alias, which was created by J.J. Abrams and is the property of ABC.

Chapter 4: The Changing of the Guard

The actual nature of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's world hadn't changed one iota from when they had been playing Quidditch in the Weasley's orchard five days ago, but they couldn't have felt more different within it. The limousine the Ministry had given them to retrieve their new allies was filled with silence and the reluctant fear of three warriors who, having just survived one terrible battle, were dreading the inevitability of the next.

The past five days had been a flurry of activity, with few single moments lending themselves to memory, instead choosing to add to the general chaos of their minds. However, through it all they had been dreading this very moment. Even more than Harry's rushed trip to the Ministry of Magic, meeting those who would help them on this quest seemed to define the beginning of this new battle, something that they could no longer avoid.

All of them had gotten much less sleep than usual, even by their recent standards, and it certainly didn't help that they'd had to wake up incredibly early that morning to meet the plane. It had taken the Ministry several days to arrange Randall's plan for the help they would receive during this new endeavor, and all three had been quite surprised when they heard who it would be.

"Um," Harry said as he closed a file containing information about their new teammates, deliberately choosing an inarticulate method of breaking the silence. "You know we're going to be working with Muggles, right?"

"Of course, why?" Hermione replied sharply. Crookshanks lifted his head off her knee and fixed him with a similar glare.

Harry winced. He hadn't meant to start that debate again. All three had voiced some concern when heard that they would be working with a pair of spies who would pretend to be Wizards and Randall's confidence had done nothing to allay their fears, but they had eventually decided that they needed help and a fresh perspective more than they needed to keep the magical world a secret. Besides, if things got out of hand they could just modify the Muggles' memory anyway.

"Well, you know, Ron's dad isn't exactly a model wizard..." Harry started feebly, trailing off when he realized he'd inadvertently insulted Mr. Weasley.

Ron, however, chose to take Harry's statement the way it was meant and continued for him, "Most wizards are perfectly accepting of Muggle-borns, but they might not take so kindly to Muggles, especially in places like Hogsmeade, so they might not get a very warm welcome if their true identities are ever discovered."

"Or even if their true identities aren't discovered," Hermione added. "Squibs and near Squibs aren't treated very well either, you know."

"So I was thinking that we, at least, should be careful to treat them with respect," Harry said.

"...make them feel like they're at home," Hermione finished.

"Exactly," Harry replied.

"I was thinking the same thing," Ron added.

"Me too," Hermione said.

"I guess the trouble is figuring out how to do that," Harry sighed. Quite apart from his concerns about the people they were about to begin working with, there was nothing he wanted more in that moment than to beg his friends to leave now, before this new war began, but he couldn't find the words for it, and, as usual, many things were left unsaid.

The Ministry limousine rolled to a halt at the edge of a long runway and Harry, Ron, and Hermione slipped outside. A small plane was slowly being taxied toward them and they watched as a group of men in orange vests rushed to meet it, pushing a rickety staircase forward on its wheels. They rolled the staircase up to a door on the side of the plane, which a daring flight attendant had pushed open.

Mr. Weasley emerged first, looking as though he'd just had a very exciting time. Harry seemed to remember Mr. Weasley saying that it was his dearest ambition to find out how airplanes stay up. Maybe he'd finally managed that. Next off the plane was a pair of people Harry, Ron, and Hermione had never seen before, but could only be the pair of Muggles that they were about to being working with. Casting nervous glances at each other, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked forward to meet them.

As the only person present to have met all five of them, Mr. Weasley began the introductions. Harry, Ron, and Hermione smiled and nodded when their names were called, but the sentiment was returned with an entirely different attitude. The Muggles' expressions were difficult to interpret: pity, perhaps, but disapproval too. Had the Wizards really left a bad impression already? Harry couldn't help but notice that Sydney's eyes kept raking the line of bangs that covered his scar and he had to force himself not to scowl in an attempt to make her stop.

When Mr. Weasley was finished, the two groups converged to shake hands and introduce themselves personally. Still unsure of how to act around these Muggles, Harry and Ron performed stupid little half-bows and Hermione narrowly resisted dropping a curtsy. Harry thought he saw a brief flicker of confusion cross Sydney and Michael's faces, but they didn't seem to mind this sort of behavior.

Small talk followed, but it didn't take long to realize what they'd previously thought of as safe topics weren't actually safe at all. The specifics of Sydney and Michael's jobs were on a need to know basis and Harry, Ron, and Hermione had forgone starting their work in favor of fighting the Death Eaters. The Muggles didn't know enough about magic to understand any explanation of what the Wizards had learned in school and the revelation that Sydney was a student at a college in Los Angeles was met with much confusion on the part of the Wizards until she explained that it was an increasingly usual thing for Muggles to remain in school until their mid twenties. After that, it took a further five minutes before Harry and Ron felt that they had a sufficient understanding of where Los Angeles was.

Feeling not at all reassured by their encounter so far, the group finally bade Mr. Weasley farewell and slid into the back of the Ministry limousine, which promptly drove away. Without consciously meaning to, they arranged themselves with Harry, Ron, and Hermione on one bench and Sydney and Michael opposite them.

Having exhausted most topics of conversation while still on the tarmac, the group simply stared at each other uncomfortably. From Hermione's lap, Crookshanks cocked his head and sniffed the air. He didn't stop even when Hermione started scratching his head between his ears. It wasn't an outright objection, but he seemed uncertain about something. Crookshanks' estimations of people had proven accurate in the past, so Harry, Ron, and Hermione couldn't help but take note of his behavior.

Finally, Sydney said, "Where are we going?"

"Diagon Alley," Hermione replied. "We need to buy you robes and wands if you're going to act like wizards."

"Robes?" Michael asked.

"Oh," Harry stammered. Of course they wouldn't know what robes were like, the only Wizards they'd seen were Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Mr. Weasley, and they'd all been wearing Muggle clothes. "Robes are..." Harry trailed off, trying to think of how to explain that Michael would be speaking an undefined amount of time wearing garments that looked very much like dresses.

Ron didn't seem very keen on explaining either, so he extricated one of his own robes from his pack and handed it over for their inspection.

Harry and Ron expected Michael to complain, but he simply held it up, nose slowly wrinkling.

"Um, you can wear your usual clothes under them if you want," Ron added.

Michael still didn't respond. Instead, Sydney said, "Why would we need wands? We won't be able to use them, will we?"

"No, you won't be able to do any magic," Hermione explained, "but you'll need them to pass as wizards."

"And you don't think anyone will notice that we never use our wands," Sydney pressed.

"I thought it was your job to make people think you're something you're not," Ron pointed out. Then he gasped in pain as Harry stomped on his foot and Hermione smacked his shoulder. A moment later, he clamped a hand over his mouth as he realized what he'd just said.

An uncomfortable silence ensued.

"It...um...it'll take people longer to notice if you both have wands," Hermione said at last.

The Muggles didn't respond and the silence persisted all the way to Diagon Alley.

Long after the silence became unbearable, the Ministry car finally stopped in front of the Leaky Cauldron and the group gratefully got out. However, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione started toward the entrance to the pub, Sydney and Michael hung back, looking confused.

"Where are we going?" Sydney asked in response to their curious glances.

Harry and Ron exchanged baffled looks, but Hermione understood immediately and said, "My parents couldn't ever see it at first either. We're going to the Leaky Cauldron, which will lead us to Diagon Alley. We're standing right in front of it."

Sydney and Michael glanced back up at the wall in front of them and gasped in the confusion.

"You can see it now?" Hermione inferred.

Sydney nodded.

"Come on," Hermione said, it'll make more sense when you get used to everything.

Sydney and Michael looked like they were fairly certain that nothing would ever make sense again, but followed anyway.

As they walked inside, Harry began to consider just how to explain what had just happened to the Muggles, but the confusion on their faces evaporated and was replaced with blank looks, as though they frequently walked into buildings that they hadn't been able to see. Harry was impressed: they sure had figured that out fast. As far as he knew, no one had gotten the chance to tell them about Muggle repelling charms yet. Maybe working with these Muggles wouldn't be so bad after all.

Feeling much more confident, Harry turned around, but after one look at the room he stopped, entirely unsure of what to do next. Without his noticing, the entire pub had fallen silent and every set of eyes in the room were resting expectantly on him. A few people had even gotten out of their chairs and were advancing toward him hopefully.

"Um...hi?" Harry said, wishing he'd anticipated this and worn his invisibility cloak, which was, unhelpfully, still in the Ministry car.

Unfortunately, most people seemed to take his brief statement as an invitation to come forward and shake his hand or ask for pictures and autographs. It was several agonizing minutes before he managed to escape out the back door with Ron, Hermione, Sydney, and Michael. As Hermione pulled out her wand and tapped the correct block, Harry glanced over at Sydney and happened to catch her eye. The Muggle looked away immediately, but she wasn't quite so quick to erase the scrutinizing gaze she'd been perusing him with. Harry glared back for a moment, wondering why she'd taken issue with all the attention he'd had to contend with, it wasn't like he'd been asking for it.

The moment the group stepped into Diagon Alley, Harry wished he'd stayed in the Leaky Cauldron. It felt as though someone had put a spotlight on him. All around, people would stop and stare as they passed and the hiss of whispers grew steadily louder as more and more people became aware of his presence. Several times, Harry only narrowly convinced himself not to ask Ron and Hermione if they could help Sydney and Michael on their own so he could Apparate back to the Ministry car and wait for them there. He supposed Sydney might encourage that idea. She'd ceased her silent criticism of the attention he was gaining, but there was something in the way she kept meeting Michael's eyes that suggested that she wasn't at all in favor of the situation.

Despite all the people staring at Harry, they window shopped their way over to Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions without incident, having only been hung up briefly at the entrance to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. The window display had boasted about a new invention called the Snake Charmer and Harry and Ron had only narrowly resisted the impulse to go inside and investigate. Thus, they couldn't help but feel disappointed when they slipped inside the robe shop to the tinkling of a tiny bell over the door.

Madam Malkin was sitting behind the counter and glanced up from her magazine at their entrance. Hermione came toward her with Sydney and Michael, but they brushed roughly past her and addressed the witch themselves. Hermione blinked several times in confusion before remembering herself and joining Harry and Ron by the door to watch the exchange from a distance.

"We both need a few sets of robes," Sydney said in such a perfect accent that the eavesdropping wizards looked up at each other in surprise. Harry doubted that even a linguist would have spotted her as a foreigner.

"Of course," Madam Malkin replied, "if you don't want to be measured again we can use the patterns from your current robes."

"It'd be better not to," Michael said in an equally good British accent, "we've been in the mountains of France for several years studying trolls. Our old robes are beginning not to fit as well as they used to."

"Right this way, then," said Madam Malkin, showing them to the back. "So, you were studying trolls. Did you learn anything interesting?"

"Actually, we only just got back and we're not allowed to discuss it until we speak with the Ministry," Sydney improvised. Some distance away, Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged impressed looks.

A few minutes later, Sydney and Michael came out of the back room and Harry moved to intersect them on their way to the counter. Just as they were starting to look worried about how they were going to pay for the robes, Harry managed to slip a handful of Galleons into Sydney's hand and the transaction was completed without any further mishap.

Once outside, Harry and Ron heaved very audible sighs of relief, but Hermione was looking with apprehension in the direction of Ollivander's wand shop instead. "Miss Bristow and Mr. Vaughn can't go in there," she said.

Ron gave her a sudden and unexplained confused look, but a moment later he seemed to figure out what Hermione meant.

"Why not?" Sydney asked.

"It'd be strange enough if you went in there to get your first wands at the age of, what, 25?" Harry said, deliberately aiming low.

"Then we'll say we broke our old ones," Michael replied. "I assume that happens."

"It does, but it'd never work, he says he can remember every wand he ever sold," Harry explained. "And even if you said you got your original wands somewhere else, he'd make you try them out to make sure they work for you, but none of them ever would."

"So Hermione and I can say we broke our wands and get replacements," Ron suggested.

After several more minutes of discussion, this was still the best plan they could muster, so Ron and Hermione passed their wands to Harry and he gave them some money in exchange.

They sat down at a table in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor to wait. Harry watched as Ron and Hermione walked away but didn't turn back to his companions when they were out of sight. Sydney watched him curiously for a moment, and then realized suddenly that he might have done some sort of magic that made it so he could still see the pair. At least, she thought that might be possible. No one had really taken the time to explain everything that magic could do, she realized bitterly.

Harry might have noticed that he was being observed by someone closer than the giggling group of witches who were hovering near the entrance to Flourish and Blotts, or just gotten bored with watching people enter and leave Gringotts. At any rate, he eventually spun around to face the table, but instead of starting a conversation he merely looked at Sydney and Michael and gave them each an uncomfortable smile.

Sydney rolled her eyes and started looking around for something that could act as a conversation starter, but Harry noticed, pulled himself together, and asked, "Are you hungry?"

"Sure," Sydney replied, feeling as though she could have lived with the hunger if someone would just give them more answers about exactly what they were doing there.

Harry, however, seemed quite content to carry on with food as the topic of discussion. "Ice Cream doesn't make for a very good breakfast, but you're welcome go get some." He pulled some more gold out of his pocket as he said this. "There are other food shops around, but if you want a real meal you'll have to wait until we get back to the Leaky Cauldron."

"We'll wait," Sydney said quickly, silencing Michael with a glance. She'd chanced a look at the menu of the ice cream shop while Harry was speaking and while she supposed that they would have to become accustomed to eating food containing cockroach clusters eventually, she much preferred the idea of eating one last normal meal first.

"Oh," Harry said, looking somewhat dejected. He'd hoped that this topic would last them until Ron and Hermione got back.

"Ron's father said you first encountered Voldemort when you were a year old," Sydney prompted, hoping to steer the conversation in a direction that actually had some relevance.

"That's right," Harry sighed, turning some of his attention back searching passers by for signs of Ron and Hermione. If Sydney had brought up any other topic he might have latched on to it, but he wasn't in any mood to discuss Voldemort.

"And he'd been hunting you from then until you finally killed him?" Sydney pressed, a strange note in her voice.

"Rotten luck," Harry muttered dismissively, hoping that making her think he wasn't interested would make her reluctant to pursue the topic any further.

However, if Sydney thought something was important, she was not at all the type to let it rest until she was satisfied that something had been accomplished. "That must have been difficult."

It took all the self control Harry possessed to stop himself from yelling at her about how she had no idea how difficult it had been, and luckily Ron and Hermione happened to come back before he did something stupid or Sydney pressed further. Both of them looked extremely annoyed.

"Everything go alright?" Harry asked, a bit more angrily than he intended.

"Fine," Ron snapped back, as they gave Sydney and Michael the new wands and took their own back from Harry. The Muggles took the offered tools without question, but Harry couldn't help but notice that the wands looked somehow foreign in their hands, but he couldn't examine the matter further for the wands were quickly tucked out of sight.

"You don't sound very fine," Harry said, returning his attention to Ron and Hermione. His own anger was dispersed by his curiosity to figure out the cause of theirs.

"Ollivander is a very perceptive man," Hermione replied cryptically.

"And by perceptive, you mean..." Harry trailed off, hoping for their sake that they didn't mean what he thought they did.

"...we spent the entire time with Ollivander suggesting that we'd broken our wands in some lover's quarrel," Hermione said with a wince, as though just saying it was equivalent to reliving the experience.

"Ah," Harry stammered, not quite sure what to say. After all, Ollivander was remarkably close to the truth.

"At least now if we ever actually break our wands we'll already have replacements," Ron said uncomfortably, apparently hoping to change the subject.

"We were going to get some breakfast," Harry offered, grateful for the excuse.

Sydney and Michael, who had been caught between the impulses to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible and to offer advice, perked up considerably at the idea. Ron looked excited at the prospect as well. He seemed to think that food was just the cure for being subjected to romantic advice from a strange old man.

They wound there way back through Diagon Alley, much more slowly than before. While they had been busy, the shoppers around them seemed to have decided that Harry was, in fact, approachable, and stopped him with increasing frequency. Eventually, Ron and Hermione decided that they were wasting far too much time and braved the disapproval of the crowd to pull out the red faced and shaking Harry. Finally, they claimed a table at the Leaky Cauldron and ordered their food.

Harry glanced around uncomfortably. The pub's patrons hadn't mobbed him upon his entrance, but it seemed that everyone in the immediate vicinity was listening in on their conversation. With a sigh, Harry raised his wand and cast an Imperturbable charm on the floor around their table, hoping that he'd remember to remove it when the waiter came back with their food.

"What kept us from seeing this place from the outside?" Sydney asked, staring out the window. Muggles were passing by, but not a single one of them glanced inside.

"There's a Muggle-repelling charm around the outside, although it's a very mild one," Hermione explained. She caught Ron's eye and elaborated before he could ask if she'd recently run across a book called Diagon Alley: A History. "My parents are Muggles and they can never see the outside of the Leaky Cauldron at first, someone always had to point it out to them."

"And these Muggle-repelling charms," Sydney pressed. "Are they in a lot of places?"

"They're on most magical places that Muggles could find on their own," Hermione confirmed.

"So we'll probably come across them pretty often while we're here," Sydney continued.

"I suppose," Hermione said, eying Sydney strangely.

They broke of their conversation when the waiter arrived with the food. Harry released the Imperturbable charm to allow him through and the two women didn't resume speaking until he'd replaced it.

"And it hasn't occurred to you that Michael and I will get hung up on these charms?" Sydney said, completely ignoring the plate of pancakes in front of her.

"I suppose you will," Hermione admitted.

"Well isn't there anything you can do about it?" Sydney asked. "You asked us here to help you, but we won't be very useful if we can't even walk through doors without one of you there to tell us where they are!"

"Oh," Hermione breathed. Even Ron stopped chewing to consider the magnitude of the problem.

"Well, they're just charms, aren't they?" Harry said after taking a moment to consider the dilemma. "Maybe there's some kind of counter charm."

"An anti Muggle-repelling charm?" Ron asked skeptically.

"Sure, why not?" Harry replied with a shrug.

"But it can't let all the other Muggles into the magical world as well," Hermione reminded them thoughtfully. "I'm sure there's a way, though. I know a few of the Muggle repelling charms well probably come across, I could give it a try."

"Well need to be able to get through all of them without even knowing they were there," Sydney interjected. Michael nodded in agreement.

"Alright," Hermione said. "That's a little more difficult."

"I'll bet Flitwick could do it," Ron suggested. "Better than those slouches at the Ministry, anyway."

"But Flitwick's at Hogwarts," Hermione said. "I'm sure if I just knew what all the charms were I could come up with a countercharm. The Ministry must have some sort of record."

Harry and Ron both stared at her skeptically.

"Or not," Hermione muttered into her coffee.

"So we need to go to Hogwarts," Ron stated.

"It would be easiest to take the train," Harry offered.

"Excellent timing, too," Ron agreed. "It leaves for Hogsmeade at eleven o'clock every day."

"But what about the barrier?" Harry asked. "What if Sydney and Michael can't get through?"

"There's got to be a Muggle repelling charm around that one," Ron confirmed. "You never see any muggles leaning up against the barrier."

"Well, I'm sure we can figure out a way to get them through. All the muggle repelling charms I've heard of don't force Muggles to go away, they only make them want to," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Alright, we can deal with that charm, whatever it is," Michael interjected. "Just as long as we don't make a habit out of running into them."

"Does anyone have a better idea?" Harry asked hopefully, but he knew that such an idea would be hard to come by. All forms of magical transportation were useless and as far as he knew, no roads extended as far as Hogsmeade, and Mr. Weasley's flying car was still running wild in the Forbidden Forest.

No one else came up with anything, so they finished their breakfasts while fruitlessly discussing possible Muggle-repelling charms they might encounter at the barrier and how to get past them. Despite Hermione's former assurances that she was familiar with a few Muggle-repelling charms, all they could come up with was the fact that her parents had never accompanied her onto the platform and she had never thought to ask why. However, Sydney and Michael still maintained, albeit, in a very annoyed way, that whatever the charm was, they could handle it. Harry was far from confident despite their enthusiasm, but when they returned to the Ministry car, he directed the driver to King's Cross Station without complaint.

"Once we get finished at this Hogwarts we should probably stop using the limousine," Sydney said when they were underway. She spat the name of their destination, apparently annoyed that the wizards had neglected to explain the exact nature of the place. Mr. Weasley had mentioned that Hogwarts was a school, of course, but their companions shouldn't simply assume that they know everything about a world they hadn't known existed yesterday

"She's right," Michael added. "If and when these Death Eaters catch on to us, constantly traveling in Ministry cars will be too easy to track."

"We need to find something less conspicuous," Sydney finished.

"Nobody uses cars at Hogwarts," Ron laughed, "Hogsmeade either, come to thi- ouch!"

"You're both right, Miss Bristow and Mr. Vaughn," Harry said carefully, pulling his elbow away from Ron's ribcage. "But we don't know if magical transportation works on Muggles. 'Course we don't know that it doesn't either."

"Alright, for starters, my name's Sydney," the muggle started. "He goes by Michael."

"Right, sorry," Harry muttered.

"We'll keep that in mind," Hermione said, shooting both wizards a look. "Someone at Hogwarts might have an idea about whether magical transportation will work."

Sydney's eyes narrowed at the mention of other forms of magical transportation, but she didn't press the matter.

"Dumbledore would be the person to ask if he were still alive," said Ron with a note of sadness in his voice.

"Then we should try McGonagall," Hermione decided. "As Dumbledore's successor she's probably privy to a lot more information than the other teachers."

"Then I guess we're headed for the right place," Harry said.