Dragging my trunk along, I, Harry Potter, walked through several streets. When I reached Magnolia Crescent, I slumped down heavily onto a low stone wall.
Even as I sat there motionless, my barely contained anger toward Aunt Marge for mocking my parents surged through my entire body, my heart pounding wildly.
But as I sat alone on the dark street for a while, another emotion gradually welled up inside me.
(This is the worst dead end imaginable…)
Alone in the pitch-dark Muggle world, with nowhere to go. Worse still, I had blatantly broken the law that stated, "Underage wizards are forbidden from using magic without parental consent."
(And on top of that, I do not even have any Muggle money… I do have my parents' inheritance if I can get to Gringotts Wizarding Bank in London, but…)
Privet Drive, where the Dursleys lived, was located in Surrey, just south of London. It was an area known for its "slightly affluent middle class" and was also famous as a commuter town for people who worked in London.
In any case, it was far too far to reach on foot while dragging a trunk.
Alternatively, I could just put on my Invisibility Cloak, mount a broom, and fly to London. I could secretly withdraw my inheritance from the vault and begin life as an outlaw.
Just thinking about it made my skin crawl, but I could not exactly sit on this stone wall until morning either.
(For now, I should at least take out the Invisibility Cloak. It is getting cold, and it would be a hassle if the Muggle police found me…)
Thinking that, I opened my trunk, and then I felt someone's gaze.
"…Is someone there?"
I glanced around restlessly, but there was not a single person in sight. Even so, I sensed something. In the gap between the hedge behind me and the garage, someone, or something, was standing there. Was it a stray cat, or perhaps something else entirely?
"Lumos. Light!"
As I cast the spell, light flared at the tip of my wand, revealing the outline of a huge, unidentified creature with glaring eyes beside the garage.
(It is like a dog… but as big as a small hill…)
As I was thinking that, the area behind me suddenly brightened, and the dazzling light made me squint. Was it the Muggle police?
"Harry, I finally found you."
A voice came from the backlit figure. It was a voice I knew very well.
◇◆◇
Now then, here is a question.
At the very moment when Harry Potter, the so-called "Boy Who Lived," faced arrest for violating the law restricting underage magic use in the unprecedented way of "inflating his aunt like a balloon," a beautiful girl appeared. Her gray hair fluttered as she arrived briskly, and even the darkness could not completely obscure her beauty.
So, who exactly was she?
"Elaina?!"
"Yes, that would be me."
When I answered Harry's shocked cry, his face filled with astonishment, as if he had just seen the legendary Loch Ness Monster.
"Harry Potter, at 11:00 p.m., I am arresting you on the spot for violating the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery."
"…!"
"Just kidding."
When I shrugged, I could see the tension that had been gripping Harry instantly drain away.
"Please do not joke like that. It is bad for my heart…"
"I am sorry, but I really wanted to say it at least once."
It felt like the perfect opportunity, so I could not resist.
"Anyway, how about joining me for a late-night drive?"
I hooked my thumb over my shoulder, pointing at the Rolls-Royce behind me as if to say, "Come on."
"You are too young to have a driver's license, Elaina."
"I am glad to see you have calmed down."
As we exchanged words like that, two witches stepped out of the car.
One was my mother. The other was a blonde witch dressed in white, puffing on a long pipe, giving off an outlaw-like vibe.
She stared Harry up and down, then blew a puff of smoke at him like some kind of delinquent intimidation tactic before opening her mouth.
"You are Harry Potter, the kid who blew up his aunt, right?"
"Uh, um… yes."
"Hmph."
After giving the uncomfortable-looking Harry a thorough once-over from head to toe, the pipe-smoking witch grinned.
"I am Sheila, an Auror from the Ministry of Magic. You can probably guess why I am here without me saying it."
Aurors are essentially the magical world's equivalent of counterterrorism special forces. They are an elite unit made up of highly trained specialist investigators, receiving special training to investigate crimes related to the Dark Arts.
Harry did not seem to know that much, but the moment he heard "Ministry of Magic," I could see his entire body tense up.
Unlike my joke, a genuinely frightening government official had appeared, and he was completely terrified. Sheila seemed to see right through him and took on a slightly mean-spirited expression.
"Even if you are underage, breaking the law is still breaking the law. Expulsion, or maybe arrest…"
As Sheila spoke while lightly swinging her pipe, Harry's face turned deathly pale.
"That kind of situation is exactly what we are trying to avoid, which is why my mentor… I mean, Ms. Viktorika, came along."
For a brief moment, it looked like my mother stepped on Sheila's foot while still smiling, but that was probably just my imagination.
"Hello, Harry Potter. I'm Viktorika, Elaina's mother. Pleased to meet you."
My mother greeted Harry with a warm smile, and Harry, looking completely taken aback, glanced back and forth between me and my mother.
"Huh? Elaina's… mother?"
"That's what I just said, isn't it?"
"But Sheila from the Ministry just said…"
Seeing how confused Harry looked, my mother smiled at him like a child whose prank had gone exactly as planned.
"Yes, that's right. I, Elaina's mother, am the lawyer handling your defense in this matter, Harry."
She puffed her chest out proudly as she said that, and this time Harry truly froze, staring with his mouth hanging open.
**
Since we were there anyway, the four of us took a friendly commemorative photo together, after which we climbed into the Ministry's official Rolls-Royce. Sheila took the driver's seat, my mother sat in the passenger seat, and Harry and I rode in the back.
"Still, it's surprising the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol handed this over to the Auror Office. They usually don't get along at all."
"Well, this case involves Harry Potter himself. I hear Director Scrimgeour personally appealed to Executive Head Bones, saying that any case involving that particular individual should fall under Auror jurisdiction, and forced it through."
While my mother and Sheila chatted about the ugly internal power struggles within the Ministry over jurisdiction, Harry quietly spoke to me.
"I didn't know Elaina's mom was a lawyer."
"Not to brag, but she's quite well known in the wizarding world."
That reputation might not be the kind people praise openly, considering she once defended a former Death Eater and won an acquittal.
On the other hand, it also meant she was a highly capable lawyer who could overturn even extremely unfavorable cases.
"So relax and think of it as being aboard a sturdy ship. My mom hardly ever loses."
Several days later, a trial was held at the Wizengamot Court of the Ministry of Magic.
"The charges against the defendant, Harry James Potter, are as follows. Having previously received a warning from the Ministry for a similar offense last year, and being fully aware that his actions were illegal, he deliberately used magic in front of a Muggle. This act constitutes a potential violation of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, as well as Article 13 of the International Statute of Secrecy."
The presiding judge read this out evenly and then questioned Harry.
"Does the defendant plead guilty to the aforementioned charges?"
"Yes."
Just as Harry seemed about to add something more, my mother raised her hand, cutting him off.
"The court recognizes a statement from the defense, Viktorika Celesteria."
"Thank you."
Dressed in a crisp suit, my mother surveyed the courtroom with a smile.
"First, I would like to correct the defendant's statement and clarify several points regarding the charges."
"Please proceed."
"Regarding the claim that the defendant was 'fully aware' of the illegality of his actions, there are numerous past precedents in which it has been recognized that minors lack sufficient awareness and judgment…"
My mother cited case after case, emphasizing that Harry was a minor, arguing that merely receiving a warning letter did not constitute being 'fully aware' of illegality. She then introduced another clause.
"Furthermore, Article 7 of the Decree permits the use of magic in front of Muggles under exceptional circumstances. Such circumstances are defined as situations in which the life of a wizard, or the lives of nearby wizards or Muggles, are under threat."
She took several documents from the case file in her hands.
"At the same time it issued the warning letter to the defendant last year, the Ministry of Magic accepted a monitoring request from Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and has observed the defendant's living conditions during his holidays."
As she handed several sheets of paper to a nearby court official, the monitoring records were projected across the courtroom wall by a slide projector.
"As you can see, during his holidays the defendant had all magical items confiscated, from spellbooks to his wand, cauldron, and broom. He was confined to his room, and at times even denied meals. In addition to such inhumane treatment, there is also suspicion that his guardians, the Dursleys, subjected him to routine social isolation and psychological abuse."
As my mother read aloud from the records, voices of sympathy for Harry and anger toward the Dursley family rose from the courtroom.
"Of course, the magical charter upholds a principle of non-interference with Muggles. However, there are multiple past precedents in which, in households formed by marriages between Muggles and wizards, a Muggle parent committed domestic violence against a magical child, and when that child retaliated using magic, the courts recognized mitigating circumstances and reduced the sentence…"
In the end, taking into account that Harry was a minor, that the Dursleys' treatment of him was deemed comparable to abuse, and that while Harry's use of magic could not be fully classified as self-defense, there were substantial mitigating circumstances, the case was settled with a purely symbolic punishment of "a fine of one Sickle."
Naturally, there was no expulsion and no arrest.
Later, my mother told me that the Ministry itself had been reluctant from the start to arrest the hero Harry Potter.
However, in the name of maintaining the appearance of the rule of law, they held a trial in form, preserved the dignity of "legal governance," and searched for a conclusion that would effectively amount to an acquittal.
Apparently, it would not have been impossible for the Minister of Magic to issue a special administrative order if he had wanted to, but doing so too often risked excessive concentration of power and the hollowing out of the rule of law. As a result, they chose to go through the proper judicial process at the Wizengamot.
In addition to what was effectively a not-guilty verdict, it was also recognized that returning Harry to the Dursley household at that time carried a risk of further worsening the situation, and that the Ministry was obligated to comply with a request for a protective order from the defense. Accordingly, it was approved that Harry would be placed under Ministry protection until the start of the new Hogwarts term.
**
"So that's how it is. I'll be the one taking charge of protecting Harry."
Standing beside Harry in front of the Leaky Cauldron, Sheila waved to my mother and me with an oddly cheerful voice.
"Harry'll be in Room 11, and I'll be next door in Room 10. If anything happens, I'll be there right away, and with an active Auror around, Sirius Black probably won't try anything."
"Yes, I'm sure Minister Fudge and Headmaster Dumbledore will feel reassured," my mother replied.
(Will they really…?)
A flicker of unease crossed my mind. I had met Sheila several times before as one of my mother's old friends, but she was fundamentally quite sloppy by nature.
To begin with, I could not help but suspect that guarding Harry was simply a convenient excuse for her to dump her other work on colleagues and slack off.
As she was leaving, I glanced back at the two of them.
"Hey, I'm out of leaves. Could you go buy some from Tom's place?"
She was already half-abandoning her job and fully intending to boss Harry around. This, truly, was what you would call a hopeless adult.
(End of chapter)
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