Enemies-On-All-Sides (II) [Chapter 213]

~~SHIELD Headquarters, New York~~

Peggy entered the meeting room with Agent Coulson leading her way and found that there were a lot of people already in the room, waiting to be debriefed. She noticed some of the respectful looks she was getting, but except for two people inside the room, she didn’t recognize anyone else. Agent Coulson had already warned that she was somewhat of a legend even though she didn’t have any superpowers.

“Director Keller” Peggy respectfully greeted the Director. Yeah, he might have asked for her help in this case, but he was still the Director and she wanted the others present inside the room to know that. Sometimes, young people can really get really weird ideas.

“Agent Carter” She received an equally respectful greeting from him.

After that, Peggy finally turned toward the other occupant she knew. “Fury” She gave him a respectful nod, only to receive the same in return. After that, there were no more greetings as Peggy didn’t know anyone else and they also did not want to waste the time of important people with inane things, though they vowed to introduce themselves to The Peggy Carter in an appropriate moment.

“Ok, then let’s get moving” Director Keller said as he clapped his hands and signaled an Agent at the back to turn on the Projector. The light inside the office dimmed on its own as the projector turned on. There were some rustles inside the room as everyone shifted in their seats to get a better view of the projection screen. The operator turned on the first slide and a picture of Gellert Grindelwald appeared on the blank screen.

From the whispers, it was obvious that not many people recognized the man in the picture and the picture itself looked pretty old, but it was more than good enough for them to correctly identify the madman. “This is Gellert Grindelwald and I am sure that not many in this room would know this man” Keller explained as he pointed at the picture. Even Keller didn’t know much about the man, so he simply pointed at Peggy to continue.

Keller wasn’t even born when World War II came to its conclusion, so it was obvious that he had never dealt with the man personally and he didn’t get to learn much from the files as there wasn’t much on them. Much of the information was either removed or blacked out as SHIELD didn’t want anyone to get any ideas, like springing him out of prison, since the man was still alive and kicking.

Peggy got the cue and started to explain from where Keller dropped off. “This picture was taken in 1944, and besides Hydra, he is the reason why the second world war began in the first place” Peggy spoke as she quickly stood up and moved beside the projector screen, and by the time she was there, she saw one of them she didn’t recognize raise her hand in the air like she was still in class, but Peggy decided to give her a chance.

“I know him, I have read about him in books at Ilvermorny” The woman revealed with a flush on her cheeks when she noticed that right now, she was the center of attention. “Are we really going to talk about him here?” She added nervously as more murmurs broke out in the room as most inside the room didn’t even know about the Ilvermorny, much less why they shouldn’t be talking about the person who was responsible for the second world war.

“Ma’am, if he was so important then why don’t we know about him?” Another of the new faces asked.

“That is a good question” Peggy nodded her head. It was hard to talk about the Wizarding World since it was a tightly kept secret even within SHIELD. Then she turned toward the girl who spoke at first. “And yes, we are going to talk about him and his people” Peggy addressed the girl before turning back toward the rest of the room. To be honest, there was no easy way to say this.

“He belongs to an extremely reclusive part of our society” Peggy explained slowly while sorting the correct words inside of her head. “Tell me, do you people believe that magic is real?” Peggy asked with a straight face and even though she was receiving disbelieving looks, she was thankful that nobody laughed at her. She knew how it sounded to a normal sane person and people had laughed at her before for saying the same.

“Then, let me tell you that Magic is real” Peggy stated firmly before turning toward the girl who spoke at first. “Thankfully, we have someone among us who can show us if magic is real or not” Peggy declared and the girl realized that she shouldn't have said anything. If the MACUSA came to know what she did, then they would be out for her blood, but she somehow managed to gather her courage and pulled out her Wand.

“That is a Wand, these people use that to cast their Spells” Peggy continued her explanation.

“Sounds like something from a fairytale” Someone commented and some snorts were heard, but all of the people who didn’t know about Magic flinched back in shock when the girl twirled her Wand in the air and turned the jug sitting in the middle of the table into a live cat… They looked around at each other unsurely before they finally calmed down. They worked for SHIELD, and dealing with weird things was a part of their jobs.

If Superpowers and Superhumans can be real, then why can’t be Magic? With that thought in their minds, they decided to accept that Magic was real. “Good, now that we have established magic is real, let’s move on. Gellert Grindelwald was the leader of a group that believed in Magical superiority and they considered us, who don’t have Magic to be inferior to them. So, obviously, they wanted to enslave us” Peggy deadpanned.

“Although since we outnumbered them by 100 to 1, he decided to use our kind against us. Hence Hitler” Peggy finished the explanation. “Unfortunately, unlike Hitler or Johann Schmidt, he was never killed. He was defeated and he was imprisoned in a prison called Nurmengard” Peggy continued but she stopped when someone else raised their hand. She pointed at the person.

“Why wasn’t he killed?” The Agent asked and it was a valid question, considering his actions and crimes.

“We don’t get involved with Wixen matters unless we really have to. You see, even though Grindelwald and his followers were hardliners, the rest also consider us to be beneath them, even if they aren’t hostile to us. So, if we had tried anything, it could have kicked off another war. They don’t like taking orders from people who don’t have magic” Peggy clarified.

“The problem is, he had escaped from prison a couple of months ago along with his followers and now they are back in action” Keller decided to intervene and decided to move on to the next slide.

Another picture of Gellert Grindelwald appeared on the screen, but this time he looked slightly younger. “This was taken yesterday at Hogwarts when he attacked the place with his followers” Keller explained gravely and Peggy was the one who looked the most shocked. The others were shocked too, but she reacted in the most extreme fashion.

“How can he look like that?!” Peggy blurted out, looking shocked out of her mind. “Are you sure there aren't any mistakes?” She asked Keller, who gave her a grim nod.

“Apparently, he along with all of his followers were rejuvenated by the person who broke them out and they are currently working for him” Keller explained sourly.

“Motherfucker! That’s bad news!” Nick Fury blurted out, but nobody decided to chastise him for his crass language as they also thought the same.

“Wait! Wait! You are saying that he is working for someone?! That is so very unlike him!” Peggy exclaimed in shock. She wasn’t able to regain her bearings after Keller dropped the last bomb, so it was obvious that she lost her bearings when he decided to drop another bomb.

“Yes, that is the report we received and he himself admitted to that” Keller confirmed and Peggy didn’t know how to feel about that.

“Looks like I didn’t know as much as I believed to” Peggy mumbled before she finally regained her bearings.

“Or he could be lying to throw us off” Fury suggested and both Keller and Peggy nodded at that. That was quite possible too…

“Do we know anything about the person who he is supposedly working for?” Peggy asked curiously and Keller gestured for the operator to move on to the next slide and Peggy’s eyes narrowed at the picture of the teenage boy. He looked kind of similar, but she wasn’t able to place a name on it. Disbelieving murmurs broke out within the room and someone snorted in disbelief before they decided to speak.

“If he is telling us to believe that he is working for a teenage boy then I call it bullshit” The man grumbled and the others seemed to agree with him on that. Even Peggy was starting to believe that Grindelwald was trying to sell bullshit.

“I also thought the same until I read the full report” Keller spoke up after clearing his throat. “His name is Harry Potter and he is fourteen, but yesterday, he killed 50 people just to prove a point and from the reports I have read, nobody was able to do anything about it even after he gave two warnings before he acted” Keller finished and once again the room was filled with not but disbelief…