Chapter Text
Lavender quickly dressed on the beach an hours after dawn. She may have been comfortable being nude for the most part, and the bikini was actually quite nice, but it just didn't fit for what she and her uncle were about to do. Out of the sealed bracelet came a simple gray dress and some sensible shoes for beach walking. They didn't spend a lot of time on the beach, though. Instead they walked up the path to the nearest road and waited.
It didn't take long for a iconic black car to come to a stop in a could of dust. Lavender may not have spent a lot of her time in the muggle world, but even she could recognize a Austin Fx4S London Taxi. Though judging from the sign saying "такси" instead of "taxi," she was sure that this one hadn't been running in London for quite some time. The partially blacked out number and sign on the side further identified it as running from Belgrade.
It was configured as right hand drive in a country with right hand traffic, a bit of an oddity. Several noted Serbian Businessmen had agreed that the service was unlikely to survive. With one of it's former vehicles, already being second hand, no longer in service, they might be right.
The driver's door opened revealing a dark haired man dressed in a tuxedo. "Double Oh Eight?" the man asked in a Scottish accent. He was tall, and Lavender could tell that he was armed with a gun under his tuxedo.
"Certainly," Lavender's uncle confirmed, as the man got out. "Jamie."
"And who this young lady?" the man said as he reach out to kiss Lavender's hand. Lavender felt her cheeks warming as he did so.
"My niece," her Uncle Charlie said, with a cold tone that she'd never actually heard from her uncle before. "Nine and Three Quarters per M. Anything I need to know?"
"I'm about three minutes ahead of a couple of Serbian State Security Force agents. I'm afraid that Jovica Stanišic is not quite happy with my visit to Begrade, nor my run through Sarajevo, Charlie. And as I keep telling you, its James, James Bond," the man said, kissing Lavender's hand.
"Yes, Mister Bond," Uncle Charlie replied, then cooler, "And you're not getting any where with my twelve-year-old niece. Your wetsuit and equipment is on the beach waiting. I'll see you back in London perhaps, Jamie. Come on, Lavender, we have drive to the Hotel Bella Vista to get our rooms."
"Pleasure meeting you, Nine and Three-Quarters," Bond said.
"Likewise, Mister Bond," Lavender said in a cool tone, copying her uncle. Then as Bond jogged back down to the beach, she went around the car to the passenger door.
Her uncle cast a small spell on the doors, then on the taxi sign, and then took his seat. "Now let's see how long it takes us to get to the Hotel." Down the road they drove, not in the fast speed that Double Oh Seven had driven, but a smooth drive as if he really was touring down the coast.
"I don't know why, Uncle, that we had to room in Vlorë, Dhërmi is much closer, and there are some nice places right on the edge of the park," Lavender began setting up the conversation, pulling the map out of the box. She had shifted to the local dialect to get herself in practice.
"The Hotel Bella Vista is just the right place," Charlie said, matching her dialect as he looked in the rear view mirror. He sped up just a little bit.
"You mean it has a bar, and you can't live without a beer," Lavender said as the car behind them nearly bumped them. "Is that guy behind us trying to run us off the road."
"It certainly looks like that Lavender," Charlie said, suddenly switching back to English. "Maybe we should pull over and see what they want?"
"Better that than wait for them to push us off the turns above Ilias," Lavender said, looking at the map. "That looks like some very sharp turns."
"It's Albania, all the mountain roads have sharp turns," Charlie said, as the car behind him actually bumped him this time. "Time to play Cockney cab driver." Lavender nodded, readying herself to switch to the unaccustomed English dilect. Charlie brought the car into a controlled slide ending just short of a ruined wall on the right shoulder of the road. The car that had followed them came to a stop beside them in the road and two men quickly jumped out of the car.
Then men were both dressed in black pants and deep navy blue shirts. Lavender could see the edge of a rose tattoo on one of the men's necks. For just a moment she was curious what Bond had done to get the Serbian State Security Force after him. That was before she noticed the guns holstered to their waists.
Charlie, on the other hand jumped out of the car, and moved around to confront the two. He began a spew in an almost but not quiet stereotypical Cockney accent, " Awright geeezzaa! Can't yew gentlemen drive? I swear, I just wan'ed ter take a nice drive in da coun'ryside wiv me niece befawer goin' back ter Vlorë, an' yew 'ave ter get all impatien' an' knock me off da road."
This seemed to take the two men back a bit, and the gunsthat Lavender spotted moved back into a more hidden position. It seemed that the men had realized they hadn't pulled over Mister Bond.
Charlie bent down and looked at the bumper. "Gawdon Bennet! Thee be'er not 'ave. Yes yew did, yew messed up me bumper. I retire an' spend all dis time restorin' me Austin ter just 'ow i' 'ad been when I started ter drive da black cabs, an' now on me first trip drivin' fruff Europe yew din' me bumper."
"Sorry mister," the driver said. "We thought you were someone else."
Charlie stood up straight and crossed his arms. "Thee thought I was someone else? What are yew doing, 'ryin' ter chase down some spy? I don't believe it. I suppose yew don't 'ave insurance ter cover dis repair?"
"It doesn't look that bad," the driver said holding his palms up. "Just a little ding."
"Just a little ding, 'e says. It takes mawer van a little din' ter cause me ter slide off da road. Thee 'ad me niece fnkin' we was gon'a die. Oh me sister is gon'a kill me if she 'ears what 'appened while 'er daughter was in me taxi," Charlie said firmly. It look like her uncle had both men under his glare and they were not enjoying it. " I fnk yew need ter apologize ter 'er."
"Sorry miss, we should have driven better and not been so impatient," the driver to Lavender. She nodded her acceptance of the apology back nerviously. "Do you need help getting your car back on the road?"
" I be'er not," Charlie said, getting back into the car. " But yew gentlemen might be ready ter give me a push if I do."
It seemed that a push was required, but after they pushed the car about a foot or so, the Austin took off, leaving the two in the dust alongside the Albanian road. Lavender couldn't help but giggle as she saw the two face plant themselves in the dry ground. She was sure that their dark outfits were going to need a through cleaning.
"So where are we goin' now, govern'r," Lavender asked.
"We need to make a stop in Himarë to see a witch."
James Bond didn't have the same ways to swim in and out of a coast. He was not magical, so couldn't have the gilly weed. He was aware of magic, having seen it done several times by 008 and his niece. He was a bit surprised to hear that Lavender was now an official assent of British Intelligence but only a little. He'd long run out of fingers and toes to count the number of times that he'd been saved by 008, his niece, and a timely distraction they created.
So he had bulky tanks and flippers to put on and use. It didn't take that long to get to the Oracle though he had to take a slightly different entryway. Soon enough, he found himself greeting Commander Bracegirdle.
"Welcome aboard, Commander Bond," Bracegirdle said.
"Thank you, Captain," Bond said, pulling out his sealed pouch. He removed solid gold gun, non functional from it. "Please secure this in the ship's safe until you reach Britain. It’s probably best that it gets back to Britain by a different method than I do.”
“I believe that M may have a plan,” Bracegirdle said. “We’ll be heading back to Malta to drop you off there. Hopefully there will not be any issues. That being said, we do expect a Sierra to arrive in the Adriatic shortly. I do have some worries about not being there to back up Captain Brown."
"I see," Bond said. "I expect that 008 will be able to handle his extraction from Albania with his niece with or without the Oracle. He has amazing timing, even for a double oh agent, and his niece is a most resourceful young girl. And that's before the assets in Vlorë related to him are called on."
It was just past noon when Charlie got out of the black Austin cab at a little inn that read:
Dhomat e magjistare
δωμάτια της μάγισσας
Charlie knew that Lavender knew how to read and speak a very extensive list of languages. She was fluent in twenty-two languages, having managed to pick up Hindustani while at Hogwarts from classmate named Parvati. She was also trying to learn Kannada from that same Parvati, but was hampered a bit by the fact that Parvati wasn't quite as fluent in that. The Albanian and Greek in that sign wouldn't be hard for her to translate into English. It was the Room of the Witch, a rather appropriate name for an inn run by a witch.
"Charlie Brown!" the proprietress said almost immediately upon Charlie's entry. "I thought I'd never see you again after that April in Tbilisi." There was no way Charlie wouldn't recognize that voice even before he saw it. He'd heard it for years, in calm, stressed, and orgasmic variants. He'd missed the laboring version, something that his brother said was for the best, but he professed otherwise, at least to her.
"I'd been wondering when our paths would cross again, Dashurie," he said. Dashurie was a beautiful young woman with long blond hair betraying her family's Scandinavian origins despite the fact that the family had owned that land in Slovenia back to when it was known as Upper Carniola "I think this is the longest time between meeting since that Gostilna in Log above Skofia Loka." That had been a rather idyllic time, where an injury had prevented his return to behind the Iron Curtin. Tito' Yugoslavia wasn't considered behind that by then. He hadn't been an double oh agent yet, and Skofia Loka had been safe enough that there had been no urgency in him getting back. SMESH had thought he had left via the Prague to Vienna route, and he'd been told to lay low for a while. Dashurie had been a pleasurable distraction, and soon after had become an asset for the service, and quite a bit more for himself.
"Yes, and maybe this time you'll settle down with me," Dashurie said, tossing her hair over her right shoulder. "You know that Elira would love to see you more. If I'd known you were coming she wouldn't be in Vlorë visiting her Aunt Diellza for the week."
"Vajza ime may have a bit of a surprise this evening," he said. His little girl's position might actually be helpful. He was also pretty sure that Elira would be happy to see him. It wouldn't be bad to mix business with pleasure this once. "This is my niece, Lavender. We're going to be spending some time in the Forrest."
"Be careful in the Forrest Charlie Brown," Dashurie said. "There are dark doings going on deep in the forest."
"That's why we're here, Dashurie,"Charlie said. "We need to make sure of a connection to events last year at my niece's school. We've heard that a wraith from Britain may be there."
"If you seek the wraith, you will find him in the Forest," Dashurie replied. "I have heard that he regularly returns to a hallow of trees just above the naval base. You will know when you find it by the feeling of evil, but be careful Charlie. It has driven many who have visited to bad ends, and Elira would miss you."
"And you?"
"But of course," Dashurie replied, before ducking back through a door.
It wasn't long before Charlie and Lavender were back on the road north, towards Vlorë, though not before he spent a little intimate time with Dashurie. This time he made sure to use protective charms. He thought he spotted Lavender looking in through a partially closed door.