As a rule, students are not allowed to perform magic during the summer vacation.
However, there are always some gray areas between rules.
It's like how whether you're looking for a casual hookup or a sugar baby, though the phrasing differs, both are essentially transactions of sexual resources, yet they are punished differently.
The wizarding world is the same. They don't go into the specifics of the International Statute of Secrecy for students, opting instead for a blanket ban on using magic during holidays.
But Roger, in addition to being a student, also holds the position of Director of the Virtual Reality Industry Office. For him, the actual International Statute of Secrecy is more applicable than the regulations handed down by the Ministry of Magic to Hogwarts.
That is, not to cast spells in front of Muggles who are unaware of magic, and not to reveal the existence of magic.
And Vernon, as one of Harry's guardians, is clearly not covered by the International Statute of Secrecy.
In the past few days, Roger had been busy with Time Magic. Vernon was the first Muggle he had face-to-face interaction with after the Time Plague research.
"This should be fine now," Roger said, raising his wand and performing some adjustments on himself.
Only then did Vernon's condition return to normal.
Afterward, Roger and Vernon began discussions about taking Harry on a trip together.
Vernon was naturally willing; this way, he wouldn't have to see Harry for a long time.
However...
"I disagree," Harry's Aunt Petunia said expressionlessly.
The commotion at the door had alerted the entire family. Dudley peeked out from behind the doorframe, while Petunia walked over to her husband Vernon, refusing Roger.
Looking at the family before him, Roger understood why things were this way.
Harry's family environment was actually quite complicated.
Harry's maternal grandparents had two children, his mother Lily and his aunt Petunia. In Petunia's childhood memories, her parents always favored Lily, who had magic, and neglected her.
It's not poverty but inequality that causes distress; this jealousy of favoritism made her hold a lot of resentment towards Lily.
She once believed that if she also gained magic, she would be loved too. But her letter to Dumbledore was rejected, and after various other events, her admiration for magic turned into aversion.
It was this lack of love that made Petunia, after growing up, constantly yearn for love until she met Vernon Dursley, a man who loved her wholeheartedly.
And just as her body and mind were slowly being healed by her new family, Lily died.
Petunia didn't like Lily, but Lily was her relative after all. The death of her close kin turned Petunia's aversion to magic into fear; she began to believe that magic was a terrifying thing.
She couldn't bring herself to like Harry, but he was still her blood relative, her kin. Petunia decided to raise him.
As for Vernon, his situation can be explained in one sentence: he loves Petunia, Petunia dislikes Harry, so he also hates Harry Potter.
Vernon would respect the opinion of the wife he deeply loved one hundred percent, so as long as Roger could convince Petunia, it would be fine.
This was very simple.
"You don't need to worry about our safety; we have the ability to protect ourselves." As he spoke, Roger transmitted some memories.
Petunia's dislike for Harry was merely an emotional one, stemming from her past experiences, but it hadn't reached the point where she wished Harry to be in danger.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have tried to stop Harry from coming into contact with what she considered dangerous magic.
It's like how parents get angry and scold their unpromising children, but they don't genuinely wish for their children to lose limbs.
"This, this is magic?!" Petunia's eyes widened, her pupils filled with shock, after receiving a sliver of Roger's memory.
Having grown up with Lily, she didn't know much about magic, but she wasn't entirely ignorant. She knew Snape and had even been injured by his spellcasting mishap.
Roger's magic, compared to the magic in her memory, was completely different.
Could something that made the sun's radiance and heat bloom on the ocean also be called magic? "My magic is like this." With a gentle wave of his wand, a point of light appeared, just like what Petunia had seen in her 'memory.'
A sesame-sized fusion force was contained at the tip of the wand. Under Roger's protection, no one or object was harmed, but the extremely distorted air due to the intense heat told everyone that this was not an illusion.
Just as Petunia's feelings towards Harry were complex, Harry's feelings towards the Dursley family were equally complicated. He disliked it here, but it had sheltered him; this was where his only blood relatives were.
Harry had learned many things from Snape and knew what adopting him meant for his Muggle aunt, who was only in her early twenties at the time.
Harry sometimes wrote letters back from Hogwarts. Petunia had read them. He mentioned meeting a very remarkable friend at Hogwarts, but Petunia hadn't expected him to be remarkable on this level.
...
Harry dragged his suitcase, looking back at Number Four, Privet Drive, where he had lived for ten years. The Dursley family stood at the doorway.
Uncle Vernon pursed his lips, showing no expression.
Cousin Dudley's gaze was filled with more fear than before.
Aunt Petunia opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, she said nothing.
"Harry?" Roger's voice came from another direction.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." Harry stepped forward again, following Roger's direction.
Roger glanced at Harry, sensing the emotional fluctuations within him. "Why so sentimental? It's not like you're not coming back."
"It's not sentimentality, it just feels like something has changed," Harry shook his head.
"When you're different from your past self, the world's relationship with you will naturally change. There will be many more such instances in the future," Roger said, not finding it particularly noteworthy.
It had been almost two years since he transmigrated, and Roger had experienced too many things like this.
"When you grow up and gain the power to change the destinies of many with your own strength, you'll find that the way the world operates will seem completely different from how it does now," Roger said casually.
"…Where are we going next?" Harry didn't really want to delve deeper into this topic.
"To Knockturn Alley." Seeing Harry's attempt to change the subject, Roger obligingly went along with it.
Harry frowned, "Isn't that where dark wizards gather?"
Just as Professor McGonagall had taught Roger everything she knew, Professor Snape also gave Harry his all.
While earning Snape's favor, Harry was also Snape's only hope of saving Lily. Therefore, Snape naturally wanted to make Harry as powerful as possible.
Not only in terms of magical skills, but also in the secrets of the wizarding world, Snape began to gradually reveal everything to Harry.
"To be precise, Knockturn Alley is the largest underground trading hub in the British wizarding world," Roger explained.
"They sell everything that isn't allowed to be traded openly by the Ministry of Magic… Of course, nothing too outrageous."
The very existence of Knockturn Alley was due to a significant portion of wizards in Britain having related needs. Thus, several pure-blood families and powerful wizards provided backing, supporting the place's existence.
They had a tacit understanding with the Ministry of Magic. Although many transactions within Knockturn Alley were irregular, they wouldn't engage in things as universally condemned as 'live Muggle human experimentation materials.'
Even for Dark Magic items, they were generally relics from ancient times, materials from corpses obtained from graveyards, and organs from high-risk Magical Creatures.
The International Statute of Secrecy was a consensus among most wizards. Violating the Statute of Secrecy and committing illegal trading were offenses with different levels of enforcement.
"It's like Prohibition; although alcohol has many negative aspects, as long as demand exists, the more you ban it, the worse things will get. It's better to manage it centrally, without giving it legal status, making it easy to violently clear out at any time. That's what Knockturn Alley is," Roger continued.
It wasn't just dark wizards who went to Knockturn Alley. Hagrid sometimes went there to buy insect repellent poisons and dangerous Magical Creatures that the Ministry of Magic prohibited from trading.
"So why are we going there?" Harry asked, his impression of Knockturn Alley having changed slightly.
Having suffered from Dark Magic once, Snape naturally didn't want Harry to fall into the same trap. He had told Harry about Knockturn Alley, but he didn't want Harry to go there, so Snape had directly labeled the chaotic place as being filled with dark wizards.
"We're traveling, so we need to get some money."
Although they hadn't spent much money traveling via Apparition, eating food they'd made through material reconstruction, and living in tents enhanced with space-stretching charms.
But that would defeat the purpose of traveling.
The reason Roger wanted to travel was to measure thousands of miles on foot, witness the bustling world, read ten thousand books, and travel ten thousand miles. Wouldn't using magic to pave the way be putting the cart before the horse?
"Normally, Wizarding currency and Muggle currency are not exchanged. Gringotts' exchange is purely a welfare policy from the Ministry of Magic for Muggle-born young wizards."
Because people believed the sun and moon were special, they gained special magical mystique. The same applied to other items, such as gold.
However, since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, when Muggle currency systems detached from the gold standard and became purely fiat currency, wizards, who were already indifferent to Muggle currency, became even more disdainful of it.
To link this currency, which could be printed arbitrarily and inflated at any time, with Wizarding currency on an official level? Don't be ridiculous.
But Muggle currency wasn't entirely meaningless.
Wizards were also human and needed to eat and drink. Moreover, the cost of living in wizarding society was actually always higher than in Muggle society… The wizard population was too small, and labor costs were very high.
A cup of hot cocoa on the Wizarding Knight bus cost two Sickles, which was about 9 RMB. Repairing a flying broomstick cost around 500 RMB.
And this was the price around 1992. In 1992, housing prices in Beijing, an ancient Eastern country, were only 3,000 RMB.
So, some people who liked to save money would exchange Wizarding currency for Muggle currency in the underground market and then use Muggle currency to buy cheap, industrially grown Muggle grains.
Not all wizards were wealthy, inheriting family fortunes like Harry's father.
Many wizards had to be very careful with their finances.
"Alright, we've arrived."
Explaining the intricacies to Harry along the way, Roger and Harry soon arrived outside Knockturn Alley.
"This place is really quite eerie," Harry muttered as they both walked into it.
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