I returned to the moment before I casted 'Accio' once more and instantly rushed through the window. Reached the opposite side of the street and run into the closest alley to switch to normal set of clothes.
I exited the alley looking like an absolutely normal looking child.
'That was an easy escape. Glad I did not have to return to save I this morning, because then I would need to repeat whole day just to escape these guys.'
I breathed out and smiled.
'Seems like ministry's become really concerned with these robberies. I should lay low till next year. I got all the money needed, so I should just calm my greed and be satisfied with what I have.'
I bitterly smiled thinking, how easily I have fallen to greed.
'Was I always greedy or knowledge that I have a backup in the form of saves broke my moral borders? I should pay more attention to my mentality, especially with my child brain.'
*POV Carter and Harper*
We apparated to some dark alley, so thankfully there were no people we need to worry about. We looked around to see if we can notice anything or anyone suspicious and near instantly we noticed a heap of knocked out men lying by the back door to some shop.
We run to it and without checking the men we went inside, but nobody was inside, except for a worker that was in the process of selling bread, so he did not notice a thing. We also noticed a window and understood, that culprit must have escaped through it.
We went after him through the window in hopes of finding somebody suspicious, but we were unable to find anyone. So we decided to pick one of the knocked out man and use service of legilimens to glance into his memories and see at the very least how the delinquent looked like.
*3 hours later*
It costed us quite a lot to ask for a help from a certified legilimens. Moreover, results were very unhelpful. Our "helper" was unable to even glimpse at the suspect. He only saw mist-like smoke and then felt force that sent him into the wall.
Nonetheless, we were able to find out that all places where robberies happened were apparently locations connected with the gang where this "helper" was from. But even that was useless information, because this bakery was last of their businesses.
We were once again with no information, when legilimens found out that 2 men who were chasing delinquent during his first robbery, saw him. However, nobody in the gang believed them, because they've said that robber was a tall dwarf.
*Next day*
We were finally able to find one of the guys who saw the suspect and once again invited our mind-reading(by the way, they hate it when people call them so) colleague.
After gleaming into the memory, we got the following description:
Short height, slim build, long legs, with a strange mask on the face and clothes colored in gray. Hands were looking young, similar to baby skin. Definitely not an adult's hand.
It was definitely not a dwarf. It was a kid. We considered all the details and concluded it was somebody around 11 to 12 years old. Probably just returned from Hogwarts, because robberies started week after study year there ended. Gender is most likely male, but we will consider both genders just in case.
This was insane and if not for seeing memory with their own eyes they wouldn't believe it. Kid of 11 years of age is capable of doing such a high-level magic and output so much energy with each spell to send people literally flying.
'Monster'
That's the first word that came to mind. Whoever is this kid, his future is bright. He will definitely become somebody on the level "Whose-name-cannot-said" or even Dumbledore.
Shame that we are not sure if the kid is from Hogwarts and we are hard-pressed on time. 2 days left until the final report and we need to find culprit before that. We put aside thought of how incredible talent of that kid was and decided to get back to work.
We've put together all suspects in the list with their address, name, parent's information and personal information.
"Who are we going to check first?" Harper asked
"Let's cross out the most unlikely suspects first to make work faster. And the first in line is, let me see, Granger. Hermione Granger."
*2 hours later*
We visited Grangers' house. After introducing ourselves, we asked the parents if their daughter have been suspicious lately. They assured us that she is very obedient girl that would never break the law. Of course, every parent would say, so we got an official right to use legilimens services to full capacity. We asked them to call their daughter.
The girl came in and we quickly explained what we are going to do and how she needs to cooperate with us. All we needed to do is to gleam memories she had about yesterday's evening and where she's been at that time.
At first, she was strongly against people roaming in their memories and said that is unethical and wrong. However, we explained to her that we are working on the case that can become the biggest breach of "Stature of Secrecy" and are out of options. Using such methods was a last method we had, and we wouldn't have used it otherwise.
She was a smart and understanding kid, while we were people who worked with kids for the last 5 years. Carter worked in this department even longer, so we had experience of talking with young wizards and witches. In the end we came up to consensus, that we will pull her memories of that die and she will see it with the legilimens at the same time. This way she can be assured that we will see only required memories.
*30 minutes later*
Indeed, she was innocent. However, we still got a surprise. There was another person who lived in this house. And we most probably would have ignored that bit of information, unless our "mind-reader" told us that the other person was also a young wizard.
Because that wizard wasn't home right now, we decided to leave for now. After we reached the department, we decided to see the memory ourselves. We asked legilimens to share the memory and then via pensieve we saw all what happened yesterday. Boy looked comparatively similar to robber we saw from memories of the small thug.
Then we decided to check who was living in the same address and some more info on this boy name "Magnus". The problem is there was no other wizard whose official location was here. Moreover, the boy was also 11-12 years old and just finished school. However, this wasn't a surprise. Surprise is - his name wasn't in the list of suspects we compiled or better to be said ministry have no records on the boy!
This is very suspicious. We need to look into it.
*Evening of the same day*
We visited Grangers' place once more. Now, that Magnus kid was at home, we can have a good talk with him.
We asked Mister Granger to call the boy, so we can speak with him. Thankfully, they gave us the whole dining room to have a conversation with the boy.
A minute later, a young boy with some simple and cheap clothes. Short sleeved black shirt with blue jeans and brown boots.
When boy saw us, he was startled.
"Hello, my name is Carter, and this is my co-worker Harper."
"Magnus. Nice to meet you."
"We work in Ministry of Magic in the division called "Improper Use of Magic Office". Do you know what we are doing there, boy?"
"Making sure magic is not used improperly, which I suppose also includes underage magic. Is it right?"
"It is indeed. We are responsible for exactly that. Month ago, in the outskirts of London chain of robberies has begun, supposedly by a young wizard or witch. Do you know anything about that?"
Magnus raised a brow and asked surprised:
"Robberies? No. It's the first time I hear about them."
"It's okay. Can we ask where you've been yesterday?"
"Are you suspecting me?"
"No. But we need to ask to exclude you from our list of suspects."
Magnus nodded and proceeded:
"Well. Okay. I finished my work in the restaurant. After that I went for a run until the nearest park. I spent around half-an-hour or so to meditate there and then I started running back."
"Why do you run?"
"For training and getting in shape. In Hogwarts I spent most of the time by the books and while here I noticed that my stamina is horrid, so I decided to improve it this."
"That is… a very mature decision, I must admit."
The boy shrugged and said:
"Was an orphan whole life. Life makes, you know. But I don't think you are here for that."
"True enough. Can we check your wand for the last spell casted?"
"Okay. Last time I used the wand was in Hogwarts. Give me a second, I will bring it from my room."
"Okay."
In case the boy will run, Harper followed him, saying:
"I will check your wand directly, so no need to bring it. Let's go together."
Magnus shrugged and confidently smiled.
"Okay"
Few minutes later Harper and Magnus returned.
"Wand's clean and last spell was cast at least a month ago." Harper said.
Carter frowned but soon he said:
"Hm… Okay. Now to make sure that you are not lying, we need you to cooperate with us."
"What do you mean?"
"Have you heard about legilimency?"
The boy who looked confused.
"More common name for that is "mind reading"."
At that moment Magnus who previously didn't show any emotions except for confidence, showed something very new. Anxiety.
*No progress, but I will still leave it here*
『 Alchemy 27 | Sneak 25 | Speech 23 』
『 Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 』
『 Herbology 24 | Magic Channeling 27 』
『 Magic Chanting 23 | Magic Gesturing 23 』
『 Magic Theory 32 | Astronomy 22 』
『 Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 21 』
『 Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 17 』
『 Cooking 23 | Training 22 』