"The Gouging Charm?"
"Oooh, going a little dark there, Miss Tonks," he said. "Used it, but not in combat. I used it to dig deep holes in dirt and rock, not against another person. Think of one."
"Gouge?" she asked.
"Possible," he replied. "But, while it's one syllable, it requires a long one and has the soft "juhhh" sound at the end.
"Dig," said Remus, firmly. "After all, that's what it's supposed to be used for, right?" "Right," said Tonks. "'Dig', it is."
"The Severing Charm," said Tonks. "I know 'Cut's already been used..."
"Amp," said Harry. "It's short for 'amputate'."
"Freezing Charm?"
"Never used it. And 'Freeze' has both a soft start and finish."
When no seemed to have a solution, he said, "Come back to it. Remember, you can also use words that actually don't really exist, or you can use another to represent what you want it to mean."
"Knockback Jinx?"
"Ah!" he said. "A prime example of what I just meant. "I used to use 'Push'. However, that has the soft and near-sibilant finish. I then changed it to 'Pud' to give it a hard finish and it goes well with the next jinx I'd next often use; The Tripping Jinx with 'Trip' as the incantation. "That would allow me 'Pud-Trip', to knock the person back and immediately trip them over while they were off-balance."
As the listings went on, Harry noticed Sirius, especially, had no problem going quite dark with his spells. Many of them Harry never used or knew about and, therefore, hadn't a one-syllable incantation for them.
However, Tonks looked almost horrified at what Sirius was willing to use.
"This is war, Tonks," said Sirius, noticing her reaction. "Not a school-yard squabble."
Harry quietly said, "I also had one word incantations for the three Unforgivables. Kill, Pain and Imp."
"What?" exclaimed a scandalised Tonks as Remus also looked worried. "Bu― but, they're illegal!" "The law concerning Unforgivables applies only to ICW-member countries and those countries that also have the law," he replied. "I was well outside the jurisdiction of them all, remember? As such, I was breaking no laws.
"Further, it was me against thousands of 'devoted to their so-called God' slave soldiers and one race of beings that make Tom Riddle look like a toddler throwing a temper-tantrum.
"I sleep well at night knowing I had no choice, but to use them. However, I was very sparing in the use of them, I assure you."
"I don't think I'm comfortable hearing that," she muttered.
"Good," he firmly said. "You shouldn't be."
After they ran through the spells they'd each listed, with Luna also listing some pretty esoteric spells and telling them how she used them in combat - which gave others ideas they could also use - they took a break. SG-1, after making sure watchers were in place at Privet Drive, had tried to find a way into the underground section under the Old War Office in Whitehall. The building, while still in UK Government control, was no longer used as such but was still a heavily protected building.
As soon as the team had managed to get into the basement of the building to try and find a way to go deeper - Potter had informed them he'd estimated he'd been at least one hundred feet below ground - they couldn't find anywhere that would lead them deeper.
Even with 'Mister Steed' apparently greasing the wheels for them to gain access to the records of the building and its history, they couldn't find what they were looking for.
"I think he must've lied," sighed Jack, himself going over the plans.
"I don't," replied Daniel. "Why not?" asked Jack.
"Look at the underground infrastructure," said Daniel, sliding the engineering plans over. "Underground electricity cabling, telephone cabling, fresh water pipes, sewerage pipes, the Underground rail network... The rest of the city, as you'd expect, is inter-laid with it all. However, under the Old War Office Building..."
Jack, looking for himself between the five different systems on the overlaid maps, saw what Daniel had spotted. "I see..."
"The only other places where they are also lacking is the Palace and a couple of places that are clearly protected," said Daniel.
Then he pointed to a spot off Charing Cross Road, just down from the Tottenham Court Road Underground station, and said, "And, here's another. It's in a spot in the road network that doesn't make much sense." He had no idea he was pointing at the site of Diagon Alley and Gringotts Bank.
"No underground infrastructure, whatsoever, is laid under the ground here. It's a complete blank."
Sam, looking over Jack's shoulder, said, "I can understand the one under Whitehall. There's very likely a lot of UK military secrets under there and the civilian cablers and engineers had been told it's a no-go area. However, that second one... there's no reason for that."
"Well," said Jack. "While we wait for permission to get under Whitehall, let's go check this second site out and see if there's a correlation between the two later."
That had the team have something to do.
Though he showed no outward signs of it, Steed was a little worried about the 'thinking outside the box' leaps of logic the archaeologist was displaying. BSIS knew he was brilliant, just not this brilliant. And most 'squints' only ever focussed on their own professions and sciences, unlike what the good Doctor Jackson was demonstrating.
'I need to speak with "Mother",' he thought. 'These Yanks are getting far too close to the truth.'
As a high-ranking member of the BSIS, Steed was already 'read-in' to the facts concerning the magical world. And, yes, he knew exactly who Harry Potter was and what he meant to that world.
Also, it was a secret known only to a very small select few that 'Sir John' and the leader of the 'M' world's insurrectionist movement were related; they were cousins through his father's side and even looked somewhat alike. Then there was 'Mother', a squib whose twin brother was the current Professor of Potions at their school; and 'Father', who was a maternal cousin of both Potter and, especially, his now deceased aunt - for whom she was a near-spitting image. (1)
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