It was mere hours later that Alice and Frank Longbottom found themselves seated in a jeep as it raced toward the grounds of Hogwarts. Lord Hellsing sat with them, stoic on the outside, but deeply concerned for them.
He would have preferred if they had instead gone to get therapy... or whatever the wizards called it in their world. He had no idea if what the vampire did to them was in any way stable or even long term. For all they know, the two could start slipping back into madness at any time. Now might be the best, and last, chance to truly mend the damage LeStrange had done.
But on the other hand, he could also understand their desire to see their son. That had missed ten years of his life, and if they only had a limited time, they needed to see him. That was why they had flown a helicopter to a particularly innocuous location, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and where now in a jeep - driven by Walter, heading for the school.
"I don't understand." Frank declared as they got a glimpse of Hogwarts in the distance. "How do you know where Hogwarts is, exactly? I thought it was unplottable."
Alice nodded in agreement with her husband. "And how is it this vehicle still works? I thought muggle contraptions like this didn't work around magic."
William shrugged, and decided there was little harm in telling them. "For the first question... there was an agreement, made in my great-grandfather's time. To be able to do our jobs, should we be needed, the locations of several important Wizarding places in throughout England and Scotland were disclosed to the head of Hellsing. Should a situation warrant that the Hellsing Organization mobilize on one of those locations - as it happened with St. Mongos - I can direct my men to it. They, of course, won't be able to tell anyone else, even the other soldiers who were not involved in that action, about where it is. Currently, only myself, Walter, and my daughter, know where Hogwarts is, though. And unless something catastrophic happens, it will stay that way."
He shifted a bit as the jeep hit a particularly nasty bump. "As for your question, Mrs. Longbottom, it amazes me exactly how few wizards really understand what the effects of magic is on 'muggle' technology. Wizards and witches don't think anything at all of the Knight bus, but honestly believe that a normal car would simply sputter and die if it got anywhere near magic."
The Longbottoms blinked at that, waiting for Lord Hellsing to continue.
"To put it simply, magic doesn't have any effect on chemical reactions. If it did, it would be toxic to humans, after all. As such, once the engine of a car starts going, it will continue even in a magic-heavy environment, like the area around Hogwarts. We couldn't use the lights or radio, here, and if the jeep stops, we would be unable to restart it... but otherwise, it will continue to work just fine."
Of course, he carefully did not tell them that the same principle worked with the majority of Hellsing's weapons, guns being no more affected by magic than the engine of the car was. Or that Hellsing had ways to protect their electrical equipment from the effects of magic, at least for a time. Magic screwed around with electricity far worse than even an electromagnetic pulse did, after all. But, of course, the Longbottoms didn't need to know any of that.
"Sir," Walter said, "We're almost there."
William nodded, and then turned to the Longbottoms and grinned. "Let's go surprise some people, shall we?"
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(Posted Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:42)
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