Checklist: Point 1

It was easy to take care of the checklist in the scant few years I have to train and prepare before Hogwarts starts for me.

The first point of finding out how competent the wizards were, could be unequivocally summed up to: more than you think, AND ironically less than you would expect.

That was a walking example of Oxymoron, if there ever was one. As a government, where there was a Trace to track underage use of magic, the system was ridiculously rigged in favour of Purebloods.

The Trace tracked use of magic in places where muggles lived and visited. So any cities, towns and villages where muggles cohabited with magicals was a prohibited zone.

Granted, this was to work towards the Statute of Secrecy. But the other side of the coin was that magical forests, warded areas, areas with dense magical saturation and old magical residences where the previous two situations overlapped, were exempt from the Trace.

Heck! You could use a series of Unforgivable curses before turning eleven, using your parent's wands and none would be the wiser.

But, since I lived in such a ridiculously large and warded house, I fell into the entitled category who could get away with whatever I want.

Apart from Trace, and its situational bias, the bureaucracy was also biased towards Purebloods and those with Old Magical families.

But, also the laws were quite confusing, you could technically, threaten and torture an accused if he is caught red-handed, but if he is from pureblood families who know about Oclumency, you cannot administer Veritaserum or Legilimency to interrogate.

Also, there was no procedural protocol to check for Animagus or Polyjuice Potion if the Aurors detain someone, but there is a hefty fine for being an Unregistered Animagus , as well as a few years of imprisonment at Azkaban, the same being the case for use of Polyjuice Potion to impersonate someone, in matters of official Ministry business.

There is a known registry of Animagus, but not many Aurors are even aware, of what an Animagus is, let alone how many and who they are.

Werewolves are also a legally grey area, as the attacking werewolf can be killed on sight, but when they changed to human, they cannot be charged for their actions, as it was not under Conscious Assault with Intent to do Harm.

The use of dementors to execute criminals was also a grey area, as something as trivial as Misuse of Muggle Artefacts can be punishable by Dementor's Kiss, but something as serious as Rape and murder of Muggles is not, since muggles are technically, by Law even below the magical creatures like centaurs and giants, in their standing.

Then again, someone accused of Bloodline Theft is a criminal, grave and heinous than even a murderer, since he is to be interrogated under dismemberment, if the accused is not a wizard or a witch, and executed on the spot, if found guilty.

If the accused is a wizard or a witch, then they are fined a hefty sum, and all their assets are moved to the victim. IF AND ONLY IF the accused is not from a "reputable" family, which in this case means, either someone who is a part of the Sacred Twenty-eight, or someone who is quite prestigious, in Britain.

And if it is the latter, then they are simply fined, and forced to marry into the family of the accused, if the victim accepts.

So yeah! You get the idea. Quite a lot of laws were severely skewed and inconsistent, and a smart cookie could get away with maneuvering through the dung, that is British Magical Law, by simply flinging more mud at the innocents and convincing the Court in trial, that your are an inbred superior cunt. And voila! Every Ruling is made in Your favour!

We were not part of the Sacred Twenty Eight, but we were much more than that. The Twenty-eight families were those who settled within the few decades of the Norman Invasion and the subsequent struggles.

Our family existed before the Plantagenet Dynasty began its rule. The name Aethelred was the name of the King a thousand years before the Richards and Henrys. So we being the issue of his blood were heir supreme to the crown of the United Kingdom and it's territory.

As such, since we existed in only the magical side of the world, we had long before relinquished our claim of the throne and its crown and sceptre. We were therefore, not bound to the laws of the nation, we reside in, as the land we live on was a sovereign soil granted by the Crown on both the Magical and muggle side.

But on principle, we had a very cordial and steady relationship with Her Majesty's Governance, and as such, we had a sort of diplomatic immunity granted by the Queen herself, which allowed to coexist within her realm without any real problems.

But, since most of this was not known or told to the Wizarding families, they had only received Missive from the Crown that our family had a Status of Noble Peerage Inherited by the sanction of the Crown. My father was legally Duke of Aragorn. And as such, ours was a significant position of power in the magical world.

But my mother's side was no less, as she came from the line of the Venetian Nobles, who had a Queen in the mundane side. And even if the Doge and Dogaressa of Venice are no more, the magical side still had direct descendants of the families who inherited the assets and inheritance of the nobles.

And my father married my mother when he met her on an excursion in Florence, and the two shuffle between the Italian house and British one, since mother is the only daughter. Therefore, both my parents are well established on either side of the English Channel.