Nearly ten days slipped by, and the Mayflower finally rocked its way into a Massachusetts harbor.
It was early morning when they arrived. Thick fog hung over the docks, and the students had packed up their things ages ago. They stood around waiting impatiently for the ship to stop.
The trip had been way too scary. The Leviathan had left a lot of them sleeping badly ever since, and all they wanted now was to go home and enjoy the rest of their vacation.
Once they'd entered coastal waters, everyone had finally relaxed a bit. Life on the ship was pretty boring anyway, and the little wizards were sick of it.
But things didn't go nearly as smoothly as they'd hoped.
When the ship docked, there were no professors waiting for them. Instead, they found a squad of Aurors in neat wizard robes and a dozen or so men in sharp suits who looked like elites.
"Bockham? What are you doing here?" the professor leading the group asked in surprise, once he got a look at the man up front.
He knew the Auror in charge. Bockham Garcia was the Deputy Head of the Department of Aurors and a pretty big name in the MACUSA.
The two weren't exactly close, but they'd been in the same year at school, so they could still talk.
"Foyle, I'm here on behalf of the Magical Congress to welcome our students home. I'd also like to hear about what happened to you out at sea."
"I see." Foyle nodded, but he still had plenty of questions.
This was a lot of fuss. There were more than thirty Aurors on the dock, plus all these men in suits, and he'd never seen any of them before.
They were looking his students up and down, and he didn't like the way they were doing it.
"Bockham, who are they?" Foyle asked, nodding at the men in suits.
Bockham's answer made his face change completely. "They're staff from the Muggle Congress. They're here to liaise with wizards."
"Muggles? Why would Muggles be here?" He had his wand out almost before he finished the sentence, but two Aurors beside Bockham were already on it. A Full Body-Bind Curse hit him before he could do anything.
"You've been away from America too long, Foyle."
The two wizards moved so quietly that nobody behind them noticed anything was wrong. Bockham stepped closer and lowered his voice by Foyle's ear. "After the New York riots, the Magical Congress went through several rounds of negotiations. The day before yesterday, we reached an agreement with the Muggle Congress."
_ _ _
On the Lume-Lenses, a brand-new face had replaced the former president. As the new head of the Magical Congress, he announced to viewers around the world:
"We will be jointly introducing the Wizard Registration Act, so that wizards can be managed effectively and their rights and benefits guaranteed.
"Every witch and wizard born in America with magical talent must register upon turning eleven. Foreign wizards who stay longer than ninety days, whether for work or to settle, must register on their own initiative. Short-term visitors will need a temporary registration before they can use magic.
"Squibs may register voluntarily, and MACUSA will keep a record of Squibs from magical families.
"Registrants must declare basic information, including name, place of birth, and current address. Addresses include hidden magical residences. Also, occupation, wand details, and any advanced magic they have mastered must also be registered..."
One earth-shaking piece of news after another poured out of this man's mouth, and then it swept across the globe at an almost unbelievable speed.
Both the Muggle world and the wizarding world blew up.
After thousands of years, the existence of wizards was finally being announced in an official form. It was said with total certainty, and it was a declaration both sides had agreed to.
When it came to how fast news traveled, the Muggle world still had the edge.
In no time at all, the story spread outward from America and reached every corner of the world, and the reactions were wildly mixed.
Before this, with nothing confirmed, many governments had stayed silent. They hadn't stepped forward to say wizards were real. Everyone followed the same rule: the fewer problems, the better. They just wanted to keep running things the way they always had.
That wasn't possible anymore.
America had flipped the table, and everyone else had lost their dinner along with it.
In many regions, government offices were completely surrounded. Huge crowds poured into the streets to protest. They were angry, they were scared, and they were on edge.
Above all, they couldn't accept that there were freaks living among ordinary humans who had superhuman power.
Sure, there'd always been classes among people. But everyone was a human at the end of the day.
Humans had limits. You came into the world with nothing and left with nothing, and everybody ended up on the same road.
Now it was different. Now someone was telling them that some people were born "blessed by heaven", with powers they could never hope to have in a lifetime.
They could change the weather. They could teleport. They might even live forever.
Who could stand that?
So for the next few days, riots broke out. Most people agreed on one thing: they would never allow freaks like that to exist in this world.
Witch hunt!
It had to be a witch hunt!
Muggle wariness of wizards shot up to its peak in an instant. A few unlucky wizards had their identities exposed and were torn apart by furious mobs almost immediately.
Wizards did know a lot of amazing magic, but against modern technology, plenty of them turned out to be weak and helpless.
.
.
.
༺ ༻ If you're interested, you can read the chapters ahead on pat👉 patreon.com/_Coreal