The Hunted...

"Rei Ayanami Quatermain," she corrects him before taking off straight up into the air. Apparently, those wings were more functional than what Cornelius Fudge had expected. That and much quicker....

The rest of the day is pretty much a whole series of headaches for every party concerned.

Rei soon finds out that for whatever reason she cannot cross a certain point beyond the castle walls of Hogwarts. A fierce buffeting wind which only she can feel keeps pushing her back.

It is as if (and IS) she was not meant to pass beyond a certain point. This is very true, the not passing on part. See, in the series Harry Potter the Wizarding World is something of a secret society hiding in the shadows of the rest of the world. Hiding their presence with spells and charms from the rest of the world at large. Here? It's almost like that but with the added bonus of having put their "world" a bit shifted in reality. A pocket dimension, if you will, somewhat akin to what you may read about in fairy tales with the Underhill and such. Terra Prime has more than it's fair share of such things. Indeed, one such lingering effect is being used as a local "Boot Camp" by the Military.

Rei and Dr. Akagi soon figured it out . . . but more on that in a bit.

Now, stuck in the area around Hogswarts a long way away from where her sisters and companions. They are down in England proper and SHE is somewhere inside a pocket dimension . . . which is located up in Scotland. Quiet a trip by normal means. Would take a long time, in other words. Too long if they wanted to take the next predicted Iconian Gateway OFF this world to the next (safe) step towards their destination. And given the somewhat rather volatile nature of the Chaos Energy that Tabris gave off meant lingering longer than necessary would only bring grief to this world.

A world that a rather disgruntled Rei Ayanami Quatermain has finally begun to accept as her old homeworld. If parts of the Wizarding World had somehow been magically displaced to this one, then so be it. It would have meant that THEY could not be blamed for some of the blood, sweat, and tears.

From what she knew from her own memories and those of he woman who'd she'd been partially cloned from, IF the Wizarding World here actually had been about all along, then why did they not step up and HELP?

Why did they stand back and not help? Or if they did help, why wasn't it enough to have prevent all the evil that had befallen all those who'd become involved in Project E? Even IF the high technology incorporated into the EVA units (and much of the surrounding NERV facility) had a deliberating effect on the magicks found in the "Harry Potter" verse, she could have named dozens upon dozens of things they could have still helped with! Rei should know, after all. She had the memories and knowledge from the very founder of Project E herself running around there in her skull, so she should know such things!

Let us say nothing about at least lending a hand with fighting the Angels more effectively!

Yes, the wizards and witches could have helped... Helped with everything, including the very project created to produce the EVA units?

Including EVA Unit 00.

"Eva is mother. Eva is father," Rei paraphrased under her breath in disgust, using and twisting one of the more sinister slogans found from one of her favorite scifi series, Babylon 5

Sigh, she didn't have a lot of fond memories of one Unit in particular when it was all said and done. The very self same war machine that had kept her anchored to life even after having died at the hands of "her" Dr. Naoko Akagi. Had split her soul into pieces in a process not too different from Voldy's Horcrux magic.

Not that it really mattered much in the end. That part of her life (and death) was over. She was different, now. Whole and healed.

Things were DEFINITELY different now, she smiled slightly as she willed her wings to settle down and just lay still upon her back.

Still, She was more than a bit disgruntled about this situation. Why?

And how does she know that this is her old world? Well...

Back earlier with that somewhat older man who seemed to recognize her Rei tried to play it off as maybe the man had recognized her through some sort of wizardly divination spell. Seen her exploits through his crystal ball or whatever.

In addition to the more "traditional" fans of her anime/manga counterpart, it had taken a bit of time to get used to the idea that she was . . . popular. Having been mostly a pariah within her own class most of her life, it had been most . . .disconcerting .

That aside, that had been a small chance of being true but still a chance. A chance that pretty much withered away and died when upon finally contacting her charges. They had appeared within a house that was the splitting image of the house to the left of it. To the right of it. To every other house on the block. Something like a cookie cutter copy, really. Except this house was actually different from the other "normal" houses of the block. It was Number Four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging.

They had appeared out of the blue in the middle of the road, but wisely opted on getting OUT of sight before the strange appearance of SOME of them (like Reika and Lilith) caused problems. The G-Man, having the least scruples of the bunch, had taken matters into his own hands by FORCING his way (at gunpoint) into the home and off the streets.

Given the G-Man hadn’t been overt with his threats (very quiet deaththreats the man makes) and some magical wards to keep the other neighbor muggles from getting TOO curious about odd happenings that may occur at this house, nobody noticed.

Didn’t even notice the shouts and thuds of bodies hitting the floor, in the end. Why should they? The walls of the house were thick enough in the past to mask the pains of one young Harry Potter as he cried out in pain under his beatings from the Dursley’s, right?

And no alarms were raised from the neighbors over what else happened out of sight (and mind). But it did wonders for Rei, however!

A few unexpected (and shocking) magical arrivals--of by Dr. Ritsuko Akagi’s description--of several magical watchers to "resolve" the situation pretty much sealed the deal for Rei. That and other things (like news paper articles Akagi had found and passed along). . .

Oh, before you ask . . . The "stupify" spells had been a flop (high technology deflecting or absorbing the spell energy, leaving the targets unscathed) while the phasor blasts hadn’t floppedat all!

No, the Wizarding World had been here all along. This was their world and by the way she couldn’t LEAVE this . . . worldlet to go back . . . meant that the Neon Genesis world beyond the magical borders here was her OLD world.

And that presented problems, but . . .

For the moment it appeared that somebody was asleep at the switch for the magical watchers here, but who knows how long that would last?

"I have an idea," Rei said before breaking contact. "Wish me luck."

It was a VERY risky idea, but the only realistic one she could come up with, given the facts of the matter...

So with those words, Rei dropped her disguise spell and looked about the barroom she’d taken refuge in to rest from her trials from those hunting her for whatever reason.

You must admit, even given the rather shady nature and unusual clientele of the Hog’s Head of the town of Hogsmeade, Rei’s quiet a sight!

1. "Domo arigato," Rei says, bowing slightly towards the barkeep after slapping down some gold coins (Aqualarian) to cover her tab for the refreshments she’d waved for....

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