"Wingardium Leviosa!"
With the last of his strength, Jon Hart cast the Levitation Charm.
He floated gently down onto the rooftop of the four-story building.
But inside, there wasn't the slightest trace of relief or joy.
After the magical outburst, his body was already incredibly weak—and now he'd forced himself to cast Leviosa again…
It felt like his whole body might fall apart at any moment.
If he looked in a mirror right now, he'd probably find his face paler than a vampire's.
The sun in the sky was already beginning to set. Night was approaching fast... Jon staggered down the stairs and stumbled out of the small building.
He looked like he could faint any second, hanging on through sheer willpower alone.
He couldn't collapse!
London's nighttime streets weren't exactly safe. A twelve-year-old boy fainting in public... even in summer, that could lead to something terrible by morning.
And if a Ministry of Magic employee were to find an unconscious young wizard outside a building that had just seen a magical explosion...
That would be a golden ticket to promotion. All they'd have to do is cast Prior Incantato on his wand, and then it'd be goodbye Hogwarts—hello Azkaban.
No matter what, he had to push himself to a safe place.
Jon took out another bottle of Bravery Potion and gulped it down.
Moste Potente Potions clearly warned that taking Bravery Potion consecutively would lead to severe side effects.
But right now, he didn't care.
Amazingly, some strength returned to him, and Jon forced himself to stay focused.
He headed straight for the Leaky Cauldron.
It was the nearest place he could think of that might still count as safe.
...
"Jon?" Hannah Abbott was sitting at the bar in the Leaky Cauldron, working on her homework.
When she spotted the new arrival, she exclaimed, "What happened to your face? You look awful!"
"I took a car from Southampton to London…" Jon tried to keep his tone casual. "Think I got a bit carsick… Hannah, do you still have a room available?"
"Probably!" Hannah whispered. "I'll ask my grandfather."
A minute later, Old Tom Abbott returned to the bar. "Sorry about that, Mr. Hart… I was in the kitchen."
"I'd like a quiet room to rest for a bit…" Jon said, head down. "Got carsick on the way here. I'm completely wiped out."
"Of course!" Old Tom waved his wand, and a quill began writing in the ledger on its own. "Hannah, take your friend to Room Twelve upstairs!"
With the last of his strength, Jon followed Hannah up the stairs.
As they stepped into the room, Hannah was about to start a conversation.
But she quickly noticed that the younger Hufflepuff student had already collapsed onto the bed and was sound asleep, snoring softly.
...
The next morning, Jon woke up to a strange soreness all over his body.
He felt limp and exhausted—it was even hard just holding his wand.
The backlash from the magical outburst and double dose of Bravery Potion was hitting hard. He just hoped it wouldn't last long.
Yesterday's fiasco had been nothing short of a nightmare.
He made his way downstairs, pale and shaky, and ran right into Hannah, who was cleaning.
"Jon, what happened to you?" Hannah asked, puzzled. "You look really sick."
"Probably caught a cold or something..." Jon mumbled.
He walked into the common area, grabbed some bread and a packet of jam from the cupboard, and sat down at a table.
Hannah put down her broom, washed her hands, and came over with her breakfast.
"You should try Lady Scarlett's recovery potion!" Hannah said with her mouth full of bread. "It works great for colds and stuff like that. I've still got half a bottle—I'll bring it to you later!"
"Oh… thanks, that'd be great."
After swallowing a bite, Hannah Abbott suddenly grew serious.
"Jon, you won't believe what happened last night!"
"Huh? What happened?" Jon quickly put on a curious face.
Hannah looked proud as she explained, "Last night, some thief named Anduin Urien tried to attack a Muggle inn not far from here!"
"Anduin… a thief?" Jon nearly choked on his bread.
"Yup!" Hannah nodded. "Madam Julia Spore from Spore Potions said he stole four hundred Galleons from her!"
"Four hundred Galleons…" Jon echoed, feeling weak.
"Yeah, poor Madam Spore didn't even know it at the time..." Hannah leaned in and said in a low, conspiratorial voice, "Until yesterday, when that thief Anduin tried to use some powerful dark magic in the Muggle inn to attack the Muggles staying there…"
"Powerful dark magic?" Jon thought this was getting more and more ridiculous.
"That's right! Nearly blew up an entire room… Luckily no one was inside!" Hannah exclaimed, wide-eyed. "You must've just gotten here, so you didn't hear it—but the explosion scared me so bad, I forgot everything I was going to write for my paper on medieval witch burnings."
"Sorry... I mean—what happened after that?" Jon quickly changed the subject.
"That damn thief Anduin even had breakfast here a few times!" Hannah huffed. "I thought he looked kind of handsome back then. Turns out he was a thief and a dark wizard!"
"What? Oh… right, you said... then what happened?" Jon asked, trying to sound natural.
"He ran off, of course!" Hannah replied after venting. "But Grandpa says something shady is definitely going on behind the scenes…"
"I mean, why would an American dark wizard suddenly come to London and cause all this chaos? Grandpa thinks the American Ministry of Magic might be involved. Those Americans have always looked down on us."
"That's a bit much..." Jon muttered.
"No, seriously… I heard the Department of International Magical Cooperation already sent people to Washington to lodge a protest!"
He chewed his bread absentmindedly, lost in thought.
"So... what did the American Ministry say?" he asked weakly.
"Hmph, of course they denied everything! Said we were slandering them. Shameless!"
"Yeah… shameless," Jon said, nodding absently.
But his mind was spinning...
Could that "accident" really trigger a diplomatic dispute between the British and American Ministries of Magic?
Was he going to have to apologize to the entire country?
...
Seizing the chance during a trip to the bathroom, he quietly dumped the blond American hair and remaining Polyjuice Potion down the drain.
After everything that had happened, there was no way he could use that identity again.