302. BACK HOME!

"MAG! I MADE IT! Here, look. I made the Shrinking potion that can shrink all items as long as it's sprayed on it." Ragnar woke up Magnus in the middle of the night.

Ragnar had been doing experiments the whole night. It was December 15th and the winter holidays were about to start in a day. Soon they would all be returning home, and honestly, Magnus needed some good rest and a warm hug from Grace. This school year had been too much.

"What the hell, Rag? Let me sleep. We can do this in the morning too." He cursed.

But Ragnar still dragged him, "Look, I was able to shrink the entire bookshelf into a brick-sized one. Hehe, I'm a genius."

Magnus felt his sleep go away and he tried to pick it up. He could not, "Woah, don't tell me the weight remains the same."

"That it does. Law of conservation of mass. You cannot create or destroy it. The potion just shrinks an object as much as possible while keeping its structural integrity. It's like a balloon but in reverse. After one threshold, if you try to shrink it more it will be destroyed." Ragnar explained.

"It seems we will still need expansion pouches then. Because if just shrinking them does not reduce their weight, it's pointless, since we can't fill the aeroplanes with shrunken crates. Instead, we're going to need to use expansion pouches now that can ignore the weight limits." Magnus planned.

"I'm going back to sleep now." Magnus abruptly jumped back to his bed and slept.

Ragnar, finally feeling tired, slept as well.

...

There wasn't much to do on the last day in Hogwarts. There was no homework for holidays, unlike muggle schools that acted like enemies of a child's happy holidays.

Magnus was seriously going to ban holiday homework when he gets more power. Instead, he would make the children do something extracurricular. Play a sport, learn martial arts, archery, horse riding, painting or playing the piano. Anything but writing stupid essays.

Magnus woke up like normal. Ragnar was still asleep, Severus was missing. It was life back to normal. He took a long breath and got out of the bed. He liked this normal life and hoped it would last as long as it could.

He changed and cleaned up before heading out. Today, there were no classes. Slytherin house didn't need them anyway since because of Magnus, Ragnar and Severus' help they were able to bring up the level of average intelligence in the house as far as it went with academic studies.

Magnus' special notes and classes on Charms helped many. Even the seventh years come to him to ask what career they should choose. Of course, Magnus advised them without any bias, though he would indeed throw up a suggestion or two to join his company. The biggest reason for joining his companies was the pay. No shop in Diagon alley or post in the ministry pays as well as Magnus' companies.

Anyway, his day went by normally. Just goofing around, getting greeted by everyone. That was until Dumbledore called him for a chat in his office.

He went there lightheartedly but found Newt Scamander also there. Magnus greeted him warmly, "Mr Scamander, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I never left. I have been around here. I called you here to ask you about your decision." Newt said.

"What decision?" He inquired.

Dumbledore explained, "Magnus, we counted the corpses of all the werewolves in the place where your battle took place. At most, you let 200 of them live. We would like to know what your thoughts are about them. Since the ministry has slowly started to catch a few desperate ones of them. Since they can only turn into werewolves on a full moon, they have to come out of the forest sometimes. But, all of them are being jailed right now."

Magnus silently thought about it, and remembered the words Fenrir spoke. "Do you know what Fenrir told me about them? He revealed to me where he got all the werewolves from."

Seeing that they were all ears, he continued, "He said that a lot of them were living in very bad conditions in the sewers under Knockturn Alley. All of them were unfortunate as nobody gave them jobs. They lived in hope that the ministry would do something for them, but that never happened. So, when they saw the option for a better life, they latched on to it. It didn't matter if it was Voldemort or someone else."

"Truly, it was a matter of shame. It was right to say that what happened to McGonagall was their fault too.

Magnus told them his decision, "Just because once a month they turn into a beast they are not classified as humans, they're termed as beasts, demi-humans. Meanwhile, real monsters like Voldemort and his people are free, enjoying every right as a wizard. Tell me, if this isn't stupid, then what is?

"So here is my decision. Announce it widely, that I have forgiven them. They need to come out of the jungle and surrender. In return, the ministry will help them find jobs and also their Wolfsbane potions will be heavily subsidised for all registered werewolves.

"One more thing, a new bill will be passed by the ministry and Wizengamot, making the werewolves equal to normal wizards. We can't have Professor McGonagall be seen as a second class citizen now."

"You forgive them for attacking you?" Newt asked him.

Magnus sighed, "Yes. First of all, they were being forced by Fenrir during the battle. And their whole decision to join Voldemort came to be because the Ministry didn't approach them before. They are normal people who dream of a better life. And having the right to live with dignity is something our country's constitution provides to every citizen. Old man Newt, I hope that you form the new bill and show it in the wizengamot. I will give my support to it."

Newt was happy to help. Dumbledore later sent Magnus back to pack his bags. He meanwhile talked with Newt. "How are you, Newt? I heard you have chosen Magnus?"

Newt smiled, "If not him then who can?"

...

The next morning, the Hogwarts Express left. Magnus, Ragnar, Severus and Emma took their usual seats with the Gryffindor four. This time Lily was also among them so their small cabin was pretty crowded, but because they were talking and laughing the whole time they didn't even notice.

On one side, Emma, Lily and Severus talked, on the other Magnus, Ragnar, Sirius and James were at each other's throats, berating each other on various differences in ideas. Peter was a loner and lacked the ability to make a good conversation. Remus was reading and chuckling from time to time.

"I'm telling you, the top floor is more appreciable than the bottom," Sirius argued.

Magnus scoffed, "Really? Then why is it that most of the curses developed talk about the bottom part? Why nobody uses words to depict they'd do something to the upper part."

James pointed, "That's because not all have a developed upper part."

"HEY, what are you four talking about?" Emma suddenly asked.

All four sweated and answered, "Oh, we were just talking about buildings."

They were not talking about buildings. Instead, they were talking about breasts and buttocks. They couldn't use direct words so they resorted to codes.

"You guys are weird. Who discusses buildings? You four are boring." Emma turned back to talk with Lily.

They took a sigh of relief, Magnus suggested they change the topic: "Let's talk about something else. Oh, James, you're going to the States, right? Here, drop this letter at MACUSA, will you? It's for the president."

"Sure. It would have been fun if you had come along." James said. Despite them fighting and bickering all the time, James knew Magnus, Ragnar and Severus were his friends.

Magnus shrugged, "Too busy. But we'll be going during next year's summer break. You can come along."

And so, they spend time talking senselessly.

...

Magnus' Mansion,

"NO, I MUST GO!" Grace demanded that she also be taken to the train station.

"Come on, dear. You're nearly nine months pregnant. You should not move too much. They will come home anyway." Adam tried to convince her.

But Grace was like a hungry lioness right now. "I must go and meet them quickly. Do you have any idea how much I missed my sweeties?"

Adam sighed and looked at Martha, "Then I can only ask you to stay near her,"

This was a daily sight of Grace showing her anger every now and then. Adam just faced it all silently, knowing it's temporary.

...

Before heading off the train, Magnus gave Emma a gel, "Make sure it's all hidden perfectly. Mum is very observant."

She nodded and put the gel on his face and neck. "I know, Mag. She can never know what happened this year. Especially not now."

They tried their best to keep Magnus' injury marks a secret. But, since they were caused by werewolves, they were not easy to deal with.

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