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The Hog's Head
–Minerva–
William took the letter carefully, his face one of confusion, as, probably out of instinct, he took out his wand to cast diagnostic charms, only to stop midway and peer up sheepishly.
She nodded with a smile, "Go on. It is your job after all. It's only natural." He smiled, shook his head, and, after holstering his wand, began reading the letter. His eyes grew wide, his face tense as he read the first sentence on the letter.
She carefully noted the emotions on his face because this was going to be a big deal, for both Damian and William. It also created multiple questions, the foremost being why? Why did Damian not contact anyone if he was living in the Muggle world?
The Hawthornes, while not the richest noble family, were still nobles, and no sane person would have denied the rather heavy reward they had put out for any information on Damian's whereabouts.
William finished the letter, looked at it multiple times as if memorising the address, before carefully folding it and setting it down on the table. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and addressed her, "Professor, I respect you, and I trust that joking about something like this is beneath you but I must ask. Why now? After all this time, after we begged you and Headmaster Dumbledore to check the Book of Admittance, you come to me with this? I have a hard time believing that there is no ulterior motive behind this."
There was actual steel in the boy-no–Auror's voice this time as he addressed her. That was yet another headache that she had no actual way of addressing. The Book of Admittance was an artifact that was sacred to Hogwarts. No one aside from the Headmaster could even access it, and even then, it only shows what it wants to show to the Headmaster.
It will only show the children who will be enrolling this year, even to the Headmaster. Nothing more, nothing less. Of course, it was a long standing policy for anything regarding the Book of Admittance and The Quill of Acceptance to remain a secret from outsiders, be it from the government or from the general public.
She was certain that even she was not supposed to know all of this. So, it made sense, from her perspective, that they could not offer anything to the Hawthorne family, because being nobles, they certainly knew more than the normal people, but not the full picture. So, all she could say in reply to William's well deserved suspicion was..
"I can't say much, William. My hands are tied, but I can say that I sent you the message the day I found out about this. The letters have to go out in a few weeks. All I know is what's in that letter. The rest? I am just in the dark as you are." She replied, helplessness in her voice. She could have gone to Dumbledore about this but the man was very busy these days.
If not with the Unspeakable business with the ICW, then with training Harry, and if not that, then his research into esoteric magic that has recently been reignited.
William was silent for a long time, just staring at her and the letter alternatively before he sighed and stood up, "I-okay. Fine. I can believe that, but this stays between us. I have to confirm things before I can give anyone false hope. My parents, they have been through enough."
She nodded, retrieving the letter, "That is fine. For what it's worth, I hope you find him, and he is safe."
William nodded and left, likely for the address listed on the letter. She nodded to Aberforth on the way out. He pretended not to see her, which was fine. It was not a secret that Albus did not get along well with his brother, the only living blood relative he had at this point.
It was likely some bad familial history, the specifics of which Albus never told her, nor did she ask. It was just one of those things that reminded her about just how little Albus told anyone despite talking to anyone and everyone about every single thing under the bloody sun.
__xx__
Ratty Apartment, Ratty Apartment Building, London
–Damian Hawthorne–
He sighed, eating his dinner in this rundown place. It had been only a day since he decided to move into this crappy place, and he was already regretting this whole idea. He was not even sure if anybody from the administration would even come or not.
He was certain that someone would come, but he was just not sure if this was worth it or not, especially since the window to receive the letter and meet the person supposed to introduce him to the magical world was still over a month long.
There was also the question of how they would treat him. He was technically of noble birth, so the majority of the stuff included in the letter was something he should have known since he was a child.
He shook his head at the lack of concrete information about the workings of Hogwarts' admission process, despite it staying the same for literally centuries by now. Either they were really secretive about everything, or the rest of the wizarding world simply did not care much about Hogwarts and its administrative procedure.
After finishing it, he just snapped his fingers, burned down the container using his magic, which he was really proud of, and then after activating the enchanted table, hummed in satisfaction as the polluted air was sucked into it. After enough polluted air was gathered, it would compress it, and create a solid block which could be used for a variety of things.
It was not really practical or useful for him, since he could and had just installed a magical variety of an air purifier around the apartment, but it was just another one of his experiments to better understand ways of making sure that the planet remained clean and did not get its metaphorical lungs clogged by single use plastics and the pollutants created by burning said plastic.
The compression part could easily be replicated by a hydraulic press or something else, and the blocks could be used for road construction, or after safety testing, house construction as well. It would just solve many problems all at once that he was tempted to solve using magic, find solutions that would require no magic, and then use the carrot and stick method to sell it to the rest of the world.
Easier said than done though, since he would not only need someone competent enough to run the company, he would also have to make sure that the said competent and likely ambitious person, did not leak any of his secrets.
A feat that he was not confident in performing right now. It was ironic that it would be way easier for him to just kill someone than just threaten them with death, and make sure they followed it.
Like, taking over a medium sized Hardware company, having it buy a smaller sized Drilling company, just to make sure Harry lived life King size, like he was supposed to? It was easy, barely needed a week to finalise everything.
But something on a global scale? Under the scanner of virtually every single entity that mattered, legal or extra legal? It would be very difficult, especially since he was going into the metaphorical snake's den in a couple of weeks, if things went as planned.
He changed and then slid into the bed, which was just fine. Not as good as his base's bed but better than nothing, which was what he had for over a year when he slept in the forest. Sleeping in a new place had him tossing and turning for over an hour, before he felt it. The subtle tingle of magic, powerful magic, being cast near him.
His sensitive senses told him immediately of wards being cast, as he sat up, and readied his arsenal. Retrieving the screen, which had a remote connection to the computer back in his base, he looked at the sole magical signature outside his building, with no backup for blocks around him, and looked outside in confusion.
His guide to the Magical World had not arrived in the middle of the night, had they?
No. He shook his head, they wouldn't cast wards around his building. He could feel them, anti apparition wards, silencing charms, Notice me not charms, and more, carefully interwoven into a single overarching ward scheme, powered by a single point of failure.
Expensive and easy to break if one knew about the weakness, but very portable and fast to cast when deployed. He'd read about them, and as he felt the ward take hold over the building, he instantly recognised that it was a weaker one, something he could break through with ease, within seconds.
Relaxing slightly since this could not be the work of someone strong enough to hurt him, he got back into bed, his senses peeled to the max as the wizard made his way up, breaching past the, admittedly lacklustre, but present security, which was a locked gate and a sleeping and aged security guard, who would most likely turn a blind cheek to any crime if passed ten pound.
Whoever they were, they were being extremely careful, taking their time making their way up the stairs, only increasing his curiosity. It could not be anyone from Hogwarts and anyone from the Hawthorne family would not come alone and also probably would not cast wards meant to trap people.
A standard Auror procedure if they were working in a majority Muggle area.
He froze as he remembered something. The bounty!
The Hawthorne family, his dear ol' dad had put a rather hefty bounty on his head. Well, not on his head but on any information on his whereabouts. He could not remember the numerical figure, but he assumed it was sizable. He'd assumed that they had called off the bounty when the Hawthorne family moved to have him declared dead, in the Ministry records.
Apparently, someone didn't get the memo then.
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