Assisting Ash
As Harry was speeding down the empty highway, he slowed down, realizing what he might be near.
“Hey darl’ fancy a quick stop? I’m pretty sure we’re near the Roadhouse.”
“I could go for a drink.” Blaise replied in lieu of an answer.
Speeding back up, Harry took a few turns, having made a note of the way to get to the Harvelle’s establishment. In what seemed like no time at all Harry pulled up in front of the Roadhouse. Walking in, he took note of a man with a mullet typing away at a computer in the corner, a few patrons squirreled away in booths, and a blonde woman at the actual bar.
“Hey, is Ellen Harvelle in?”
“Uh, yeah, hang on a sec.” The blond said, giving him a suspicious look before ducking her head through a doorway. “MOM! Someone’s here to see you!”
“Oh wait, you’re Jo?” Harry asked.
“Yes.” Jo replied, looking at him with more suspicion. “Who are you two? Also, how old are you, ‘cus you don’t look anywhere near old enough to be in a bar.”
“I’d be mighty interested to know that as well.” Ellen said as she walked through the door, holding a crate of bottles.
“James Evans and Blaise Zabini.” Harry replied, seeing a glimmer of recognition forming in Ellen’s eyes. “As for the other question, that isn’t really important right now. You might know me better as OI. Or Occult Informant.”
At the use of his online handle, Ellen finally connected the dots.
“Oh, you’re Frank’s kid! How’s he doing nowadays? He never calls anymore.”
“Wait, you know Frank?”
“Who do ya think he went to for advice about setting up his bar in London? Don’t know why he decided to stay after graduating.”
“Ya know, I had wondered about that. Anyway, he’s doing pretty good. He’s also got, like, some weird thing going on with my godfather.”
“Good. Lord knows he can get mopey when he’s alone for too long. As for you, what are you doing in Nebraska? Last time he called, Frank mentioned when your school year starts.”
“Wait, you’re still in school?” Jo asked, sounding dumbfounded.
“Yeah, but we’re both seventeen so it basically doesn’t matter. Anyway, it’s complicated. Are you two on the list?”
“Yeah, and so is Ash. Fancy bit of coding, that website of yours. Reckon you’d get along like a house on fire.”
“Darl’ you mind explaining the UK sitch to them?”
“Not at all.”
Leaving Blaise to explain the intricacies of becoming fugitives in a secret civilization, Harry picked up a bottle of beer and plopped it in front of Ash as he sat down.
“Ah thanks dude! You got a bottle as well?”
“Nah, I don’t drink all that often. Whatcha doing?”
“Tracking some gnarly weather patterns. Trying to find where a demon’s gonna pop up next.”
“Dean and Sam ask ya?”
“Yeah.”
“Mind if I take a look?”
“I dunno, it’s pretty delicate code I’ve got runnin’ over here.”
“Oh, I get that, I run my own database site. Maybe a peek instead of a look?”
“Just don’t touch the keys.”
Looking over at Ash’s computer, Harry saw a weather map of the US cycling through past patterns that were then turned into different calculations which were then mapped onto another map of the US predicting future weather patterns.
“That is… a lot more complicated than running OI.” Harry said, sitting back down. “Uh, there’s a spell I could do that could give you some concrete data points for the next week, if you want.”
“Oh, you’re that James dude.” Ash said, before processing the rest of the sentence. “Wait really? That’d be killer if you would.”
“Yeah, just hang on a moment.”
Reaching into his satchel, Harry pulled out a small chest of drawers. It had taken a while to modify it when he was at Bobby’s but he had altered the large piece of furniture from his room to be portable, as well as usable. Pulling out a handful of wheat grains, Harry sprinkled it in a circle.
“Hey Ellen! D’ya have any vodka?”
“Yeah, but I’m not selling any to ya.”
“It’s not to drink, it’s for some spellwork.”
Intrigued, she brought over a shot glass filled with vodka, which Harry dumped in the middle of the grains, setting it on fire afterward. Pulling out a notebook and pen, Harry waved his wand over the circle, muttering a short string of Romanian. As soon as he finished, he entered a trance and started writing a list of weather conditions along with coordinates and names in the notebook.
As he exited the trance, Harry pushed the notebook to Ash as he waved his wand over the table, getting rid of the grains and cleaning the scorch mark from the wood.
“Sorry ‘bout the fire Ellen. Romanian folk magic uses it a lot.” Harry said, looking at Ash who seemed increasingly confused.
“Uh, you ok Ash?”
As it turned out, the weather patterns he had listed were almost all near-perfect matches for Ash’s predictions, with some being wildly different. The part that was confusing him was that, somehow, the folk rite had given him the exact coordinates for each place's town square, or the closest equivalent.
“So, helpful info?”
“Dude, with this data the margin of error basically doesn’t matter!”
“He’ll be busy for a while.” Ellen commented. “C’mon, Jo wants to see you do some magic.”
“The real reason?” Harry asked, walking with Ellen.
“Your fella and her have been talking about poisons for a bit too long.”
“Any poisoned patrons are on them.”
“Some of em would deserve it.” Ellen muttered.
“What was that spell you were doing?” Jo asked as he sat at the bar.
“Bit of Romanian folk magic. Used to predict weather, though it only stretches a week in the future.”
“So that’s Romanian, and Latvian according to Zabini. What other countries have you picked stuff up from?”
“Uh, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Russia, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales… that’s about what I can remember. There’s probably some others though.”
“What about some spells? Like the ones you learnt at school?”
“Ya wanna see a shot glass tap dance?”
Hearing the pure joy in Jo’s laugh, Harry proceeded to demonstrate more of the ridiculous charms that Hogwarts taught ranging all the way from the Color Changing charm to creating Bluebell Flames. Eventually, Blaise reminded him that they needed to get going.
“Great to meet y’all! You ever need my help I’m a call away!”