The Truth Behind the Veil ✔️

Curse Breaking

Post Hogwarts
(1978-1979)

   The summer was...eventful. Regulus' seventeenth birthday was a week after graduation which had been all sorts of fun but things only got stressful from there. Between planning two weddings and Order meetings, the group rarely had time to meet up all together.

No one told Fawn or Peter anything about the meetings. It was understandable of course, but didn't stop the slight sting from knowing their friends couldn't fully trust them anymore. Peter instead, spent his time job-hunting, mostly for something practical in the Ministry or Diagon Alley.

Fawn had been hired by Gringotts as a Curse-Breaker in Training. The days were long and taxing as she needed to learn intense curses and counter-curses as well as understand ancient languages and runes such as the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians. She was lucky to have gotten O's in DADA, Charms and Ancient Runes or else the training sessions would've been so much worse.

In addition to practical training, there were many readings on dark artifacts and dark magic that employees needed a strong grasp of in order to know what they'd be up against on their missions. The entire subject was fascinating and Fawn was desperate to find something worth-while to help the war-effort among the pages of old tomes or while de-cursing an artifact.

To clear common misconception; Curse-Breakers did not break curses with the intention to steal and bring back treasure for the Goblins. That was yet another pathetic story to blasphemy non-wizards. Instead, Curse-Breakers quite literally, broke dangerous curses. Only this time, with the intent to bring back safety to the area where the curse was.

Many of these cursed areas or objects were now common Muggle tourist attractions such as the pyramids in Egypt. So, Curse-Breakers would enter a pyramid or tomb, leaving it as undisturbed as possible, grab the cursed artifact—if there was was one—and bring it to a safe space where the curse could be removed along with any other dark magic surrounding it before being returned to its proper place unless it had been stolen and placed there by someone else previously. In that case, it would go to the designated place that that country had for stolen, magical objects—often a museum—and be dealt with by the country's government from there on out.

If it was an area that was cursed, then a large group would have to be sent out for several weeks, months or even years to carefully rid it of the magic without harming the nearby people. Locations were much more difficult to cleanse than objects were just based on their immobility.

Sometimes it was hard to tell which curse had been used. There were so many different types of dark-magic that assuming one curse and it being another could end in a fatality. This was why these missions were always with a team of two or more regardless of how easy the task seemed. There is safety in numbers; more brains, someone to help if another got hurt, ect.

"Briggs," the rough voice of her boss called out, "You're on call. Get ready."

Fawn's head snapped up, her book thudding shut. "I'm on call?"

  "Yes," Mark Raepick snapped, "You're going to Rome with Shaklebolt and Bones. You leave in three hours."

Jordan Shaklebolt was the younger brother of the well-renowned Auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and had been in the same year as, and best friends with, Frank Longbottom. Fawn got on well enough with Jordan. He was funny and laid back but also extremely knowledgeable and took his work seriously.

Owen Bones was the older brother of Edgar and Amelia and had been working for Gringotts for nearly eight years now. He was a kind man who talked very highly of his family and wife and respected everyone unless they gave him a specific reason not to. There was not one person who didn't have a good thing to say about the man and Fawn was pleased to be sent on a mission with him.

"Ready!" Jordan hopped down the stairs, duffel bag hanging over his shoulder. He grinned at Fawn. "First mission, are you nervous?"

  She shrugged, knowing that even if she were—which she definitely was not, thank you very much—it wouldn't matter, she'd come too far to back out now. "Nah. Though I wish we had more notice."

  Jordan laughed. "Better get packing!"

*****

Soon enough August came and with it a muggy, uncomfortable heat. It was Alice and Frank's wedding day but Fawn hadn't made it to the bachelorette party or the rehearsal dinner. Instead she was in the Everglades. Yes, the Everglades of Florida in the United States of America, many many kilometers away from the English countryside.

This was the third mission she'd been on and so far nothing terrible had happened. Most of the curses had been fairly easy to figure out but this time luck was not on the group's side. They'd been in Florida for two weeks. The entire swamp was cursed they had discovered and it would take ages to work it all out. Therefore, Fawn had to miss her friend's wedding.

Luckily, Alice had been extremely understanding, but Fawn couldn't help the bubble of guilt that swam through her stomach as she waded through thick water and avoided alligators. She knew that requesting 'off days' wasn't really a thing in this career field but if there was a day that would have been, today was that day.

A mosquito buzzed past Fawn's ear, distracting her from the spell she'd been casting. "Focus Fawn," Jordan said.

  "I'm trying but these blasted mosquitoes are annoying me." A wave of his wand and they were gone.

"How'd you do that?"

   "Bug repellant spell. Honestly Briggs, and you calm yourself a Witch!"

  "Oh I'm sorry I was studying curses and dark magic instead of looking at bloody bug spray!"

"Focus, both of you," Owen called, "we're so close."

Ten days later and the curse had finally been broken but not without the group being eaten alive by the pesky insects. Apparently Jordan's spell only worked for a short amount of time.

"I missed my friend's wedding to instead melt from humidity and become an un-consenting blood donor. How fantastic." The group laughed, continuing to trudge through the marsh-land to where the port-key would be set up for them to go home.

"I second that. I think we could all use a good shower."

That much was true, they smelled like thirteen year-old boys who had yet to discover deodorant—not even Axe.