It was obvious something was wrong as soon as Johnny walked up to pick up his registration for Nationals. He was given his pack and the usual speech, but then he and Galina were ushered into a room behind the registration desk. Inside were a hell of a lot of faces Johnny recognised and he took a seat somewhere near the back. He was running late, so he had registered later than he had wanted and it looked as if almost everyone else was there before him.

Johnny shrugged at Galina and pulled out his phone, settling in for what was clearly going to be a wait.

"Hello," was the word that brought him back from tweeting and chatting to Tanith and he looked up to see someone on the little stage at the front, "sorry to have kept you all waiting."

Quiet descended over the room; skaters could be an unruly bunch, but not when it was important.

"My name is Harry Potter," the man at the front said, "and I'm a member of the British police force."

Johnny sat up and began to pay attention; this was clearly going to be interesting. Harry was average height, had black hair that was either artfully styled or completely wild and the most stunning green eyes. Since Johnny could see them from where he was sitting, he had to assume they were magnificent close up.

"My apologies for having to bring you all here when you all want to be settling in, but we have a security situation you all need to be aware of," Harry continued speaking.

On the screen behind him the face of a man of about sixty appeared.

"This is Braken Parkinson," Harry said and Johnny did his best to pay attention to what was going on and not how nicely Harry's pants lined the curve of his ass when the Englishman turned and indicated the photo, "and he is, in the vernacular, a very bad man. I am head of the task force charged with bringing him to justice. While I will not bore you with his crimes, this briefing is to warn anyone who may see him not to approach him."

The situation was beginning to sound far too serious for Johnny's liking.

"Parkinson comes across as a perfectly rational and ordinary human being, but he is not," Harry continued to explain. "He enjoys causing other's harm and our intel says he has picked this event for his latest game. If any of you see him, please report it to any member of the security staff immediately."

It was more than a little shocking; usually the most dangerous thing about a skating event was how many divas were in the same building.

"There are information packs for all of you," Harry said and nodded at one of his associates. "Please, don't worry too much, but do be alert. Does anyone have any questions?"

Johnny saw Charlie White put up his hand.

"Yes?"

"Why did he pick here?"

It was a question Johnny wanted answered as well.

"From what we can tell, it's the most highly publicised event occurring in this part of the world at the moment," Harry replied as if he had expected the question. "Parkinson enjoys an audience."

Johnny stuck up his hand; it just seemed too weird.

"Why is this man even in the USA?" he asked as soon as Harry acknowledged him.

"He fled the UK just before we closed in on him," Harry replied in a very efficient tone. "He had relatives in this area, which is why we believe he came here."

It all sounded so reasonable, but Johnny couldn't help thinking something was odd. There were a couple of other questions, but nothing that really gave any more information. Johnny left with everyone else, feeling more than a little dissatisfied by the whole situation. However, as he headed for his hotel room, he realised he had more important things to worry about, after all it was his big comeback year.

Having leafed through the information pack, he put it away and mentally shook himself. He had a competition to win.

====

All the extra security had everyone a little jumpy, but Johnny was doing his best to ignore it. So far it seemed to be working and, since he was in second after the short program, he was in a buoyant mood, even if he did just want to sit down for a while. He knew his free program was spectacular, like nothing the judges would have seen from him before. Now he had to focus on that. The fact that he was ahead of Evan made him want to giggle very ungraciously, but Jeremy was currently looking on better form than both of them, so he needed to focus.

Johnny looked in his bag and sighed; he'd left his gloves in the changing room. Turning, he began to walk back the way he had just come. When he stepped round the corner towards the locker room all thoughts of focus flew out of his head. The only person who had been left in there when he walked out had been Adam, but Adam wasn't inside anymore. In fact, Adam was in the corridor, only Adam wasn't walking, and Adam wasn't being carried, Adam was floating.

Adam appeared to be unconscious and he was hanging in mid air behind a hooded man who had a stick pointed at the young skater. Johnny couldn't help it, he made a noise of shock and instantly the man looked up at him. All Johnny could see was some sort of mask. His self-preservation instincts kicked in.

He did what any self-respecting figure skater would do, he threw a skate at the man's head and yelled at the top of his lungs for help.

His aim was off and he only managed to hit the other man on the shoulder, but he must have broken the man's concentration, because Adam fell to the floor with a rather sickening crunch. The stick also went sailing onto the floor, where the man dived after it. Johnny just kept yelling.

When he heard footsteps coming from behind him he had never been so glad to hear anything in his life. The man in the mask didn't seem so pleased and ran in the opposite direction just as Agent Potter and another one of his men rounded the corner.

"He went that way," Johnny said and pointed.

"Stay here," Potter told his subordinate and then disappeared after the fugitive.

That was the point where the adrenaline began to wear off a bit and Johnny realised he had seen things that just weren't possible.

"He was floating," he said, waving his hand at Adam, "in mid air, he was just floating."

"Everything is under control now, Sir," Potter's subordinate said, which was no use whatsoever, "just try and stay calm."

Johnny wanted to hit him, but settled for going over and checking on Adam instead. He'd done basic first aid in the dim and distant past; very useful for training, but he didn't know enough to do more than check that Adam was breathing. There was a rather large welt above Adam's right eye and Johnny had had feeling the young skater was going to have a nasty case of concussion when he woke up.

Pulling off his jacket, he lifted Adam's head and put it under it as the officer of the law stood around looking helpless. He was beginning to think their extra security were really odd, which brought him back to the whole floating thing and he almost freaked out.

"He's gone."

Johnny looked up as Agent Potter reappeared.

"He had this stick and somehow he was making Adam float," he said before he could talk himself out of it.

It was only as he looked properly that he realised there was a very similar looking stick in Potter's hand.

"Oh," he said.

"Sorry, Mr Weir," Potter said and lifted the stick thing. "Obliviate."