20 Matters of the Heart

The amount of information Hadrian plundered from their minds was impressive, its safe to say wizard kind are not so different to their non-powered counterparts. With access to magic their ability for sin is amplified especially if they know they can get away with it and have been for years.

Hardly any of the men present were innocent, giving into one carnal desire or the other they have built up quite the ledger of crimes, "I'm not sure if I'm to be surprised or not, a majority of you are actually muggleborn", shaking his head Hadrian began to think of about what to do with them.

An idea suddenly popped up, stunning all of them and taking down the wards preventing them from leaving in any known magical way, he called for Tuny. With a pop Tuny appeared in front of him "yes Master Harry Potter sir", "Tuny I want you to transport all of them to the cells back at the Manour".

With immediate effect the bodies on the floor disappeared one after the other, Lady Matilda could not help but ask "what do you plan on doing with them?".

Wondering if he should answer or not, he decided to after a moment "I plan on seeing if I can discover the origin of magic in an individual, does it originate from the soul, does it come from the blood or are there other elements at play".

"That's quite the undertaking, many have tried and some had a measure of success, I believe a few of us in the past tried to find such answers ourselves, refer to the library for what they found".

Having not fully gone through his accumulated knowledge Hadrian quickly went to the LOHP to compile a book on the origin of magic. "It turns out I've got enough information to answer my question."

Magic as described from the Library turns out to be as a mutation of the blood, at some point in the distant past something experimented with the human genome and in a freak accident as such when it comes to science, the offshoot result of this accident resulted in what is known today as wizards and witches.

Not only were wizardkinds' ancestors experimented on but all sapient species on earth seemed to originate from the same point. Unfortunately, what or who was responsible for this is something no one has been able to discover.

It also turns out that magic is the extremely watered-down version of the energy that was present at the formation of the universe, in reference to the scientific discoveries of this time coupled with the properties of magic and what it allows the user to do, only an energy with similar properties to that of the building blocks of a universe will be able to allow effects that wizards do so freely.

"One thing that surprises me is that magic became a separate bridge between body and soul of an individual, compared to the already existing link; that resonance allows wizards to create more of it as they live, the excess amount of magic gets filtered into the environment and a cycle of reverse nourishing begins" he murmured.

Seeing Hadrian lost in thought Lady Matilda examined their current surroundings, apart from the fireplace there was an old oak desk with a few parchments, apart from that nothing of value seemed to be present.

Refocusing on Hadrian, "are you ready?" she asked and with a nod he led them out of the building. Taking Lady Matilda's hands while casting antidetection spells they became virtually invisible to every sense, "impressive, you'll have to teach me that sometime" remarked Lady Matilda, with a chuckle Hadrian lead them deeper into Knockturn alley.

"I'll teach it to you later on, just remind me when we get back. For now we have a few slaves to set free", with a raised eyebrow Lady Matilda looked at him wondering why he'd do such a thing at this point.

As if reading her mind, he replied "it's simple really, what's one of the easiest ways of earning a person's trust or at the very least gaining their respect?", she replied "you free them, give them shelter, freedom that they didn't have".

"But we don't need them at this point in time, why go the extra mile?" Lady Matilda couldn't help but ask; "Its not for the immediate future, however you can never have too many people owing you a debt and who knows… they might prove useful in time, and besides wouldn't you help those in need when you have the chance and means to?"

With his piece said he carried on his journey in silence while Lady Matilda had a hint of a smile on her face. They eventually reached a building that seemed to blend in with the others around, nothing stood out about this building except it was one of many in Knockturn Alley.

"How do you want to do this? Silent or spells blazing?", a hint of excitement couldn't help but escape Hadrian as he asked Lady Matilda, even with his limited amount of time training he had a really good roster of spells under his belt, an eagerness for some live action was understandable.

"Seeing as this is your first time getting involved in something like this, for not only your safety but of those trapped, it'd be better if we were quiet this time", channelling a hint of childishness he pouted, "ruin my fun will you". They both chuckled at this before getting serious.

"As you can feel magic, I want you to feel out any wards that may be in place, see if you can dismantle them but take your time so as to not alert anyone".

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes to concentrate, the energy in the air became visible to him. Perceived in greater detail than his eyes could capture he felt the different shades of magic, their effects interwoven, the history of that very location lingers in the air, those that have come and gone like a faint sent.

It was beautiful.

Focusing on the building in front he watched how the energy was moulded, how the wizard in charge of it wove lines of runes along with materials that amplified its effects, to any trained Aurors it would have taken a few of them at least fifteen minutes to bream through this, giving the main occupants enough time to escape or set up any trap.

With a simple poke at the lower nexus, he could bring down the entire thing.

But as it was a game of subtlety he began weaving, his personal reserves not enough to overpower the ward scheme, but he didn't need to do that, as a painter would stroke a brush his wand settled on a ward line, like ink the ward began to distort in motion with his movement.

His actions smooth as the wards meant for security and defence became one that trapped those within.

A few moments prior.

Marshal Lynch was the typal crony, one used to the underbellies of the Wizarding world. Don't ask questions, do your job and maybe you'll get a chance to sample some of the merchandise if you're good enough. He was good at what he did.

It was another typical day, a few of the recent acquisitions needed to be prepped for sale, one or two younger than the usual but there are those that were into that type of thing. He was not complaining, who they were before was not important as their families must have forgotten about them at this point, they were freshly 'scrubbed' as well.

All he had to do was make sure they were in top shape for when the next sales began in a fortnight, preparations do tend to be tedious but maybe a sample here and there of the less desirable should help.

He was about to retreat to his temporary accommodation before he felt all strength in his body drain, as if paralysed he dropped to the floor, the sound of bodies hitting the floor could be heard in the various rooms, his heart beating furiously against his chest as fear gripped him. His fate shared with everyone in the building whether slave or slaver.