Late at night...
London, a city with a history spanning over a thousand years, seemed to have an unusually bright night sky tonight. The deep-blue sky sparkled with the Milky Way, like silver lamps hanging in a profound black river, stirring up fanciful thoughts.
Yet, beneath this beautiful starry sky, the Swinton home was still ablaze with light. Even after midnight, the residents of the house were still unable to sleep.
In the living room of the Swinton villa, two people looked on in disbelief, staring blankly at a glowing orb floating around, and at the kitchen utensils automatically making a late-night snack. For a while, they couldn't speak.
"I'm starting to wonder if you two have stared long enough. Is there any need to be surprised for so long?!" Aliya said, looking at her brother and father with an exasperated expression.
"And you're not surprised? Magic is real!" the tall, crew-cut teenager said, turning his head in a daze. He was Rick, the Swinton family's youngest child and a hockey player, whose body was covered in well-defined muscles from the sport. The shock he felt from coming home that evening still hadn't subsided.
"Victor, how did you… I mean, when did you discover you could do these things?" Mr. Wilson, the head of the Swinton family, asked with a stutter, gesturing with both hands at the magically enchanted objects around them.
Wilson was a well-known detective at the London Police Station, nicknamed "Swinton Holmes." For a long time, many complex cases in London were easily solved by him, a testament to his high level of observation and judgment.
But on this ordinary night, he came home to find out that the child they had adopted over ten years ago could do magic and had even received an acceptance letter from a school of witchcraft.
At first, he thought it was just a family joke, but with reality staring him in the face, the worldview and values he had held as a police officer for so many years were on the verge of collapsing. He even began to question his professional abilities.
Over all these years, Wilson was sure he had never seen anything suspicious happen in his home. And a child as young as Victor should have been at the age where he expressed his true nature; if he knew magic, how could he not have left a single trace?
"Oh, I found out on my tenth birthday," Victor said, catching the snack flying in from the kitchen. He gave a half-truth, half-lie explanation while secretly casting a spell that would temporarily influence people's thoughts.
"Is that so?" Wilson rubbed his temples. It was reasonable for a child to have his own little secrets as he grew up, especially with something as unbelievable as magic. But Wilson still felt that there was something strange about it.
"So, about school, are you really going to attend this place called Hogwarts?"
After thinking it over, Wilson decided to first clear his mind of the jumbled information. He took out his pipe, lit the tobacco with a match, and began to puff on it, getting down to business. "Julie told me you've already sent your reply, but you should know that with your intelligence, you have a great chance of getting into the best universities in the UK. But a magical school..."
The burning ember on the tobacco brightened and then dimmed. Wilson blew out a puff of smoke, his eyes cast down. "Victor, I've seen countless times how people with a knife or a gun can think they're invincible. What will a magical world with such mysterious powers be like? To be honest, I'm very worried."
"I feel the same way, dear. We don't know anything about that world, and it makes me uneasy," Julie added with worry.
"..."
The house fell into a sudden silence.
It was normal for the Swintons to be concerned for Victor's safety. After all, people were always curious about things they didn't understand, but mostly, they were in awe.
Hearing what their parents said, Aliya and Rick's excited expressions faded. They were also conflicted. While they yearned for a world of magic, they were just as worried as their parents about Victor going to an unfamiliar place.
Victor looked at the four of them, a wry smile on his face. He quickly began to explain. "You don't need to be so worried. Think about it: if the magical world was really that dangerous, what would happen to ordinary people? How could non-magical people truly live in peace for all these years?"
"Besides, a professor from Hogwarts will be here in a few days. We can ask them about any concerns you have then. And don't worry, I'm very powerful."
As he finished speaking, a dazzling red magic circle suddenly appeared and slowly rotated in the palm of Victor's hand. Immediately, a fireball a full meter in diameter condensed in mid-air. It was a brilliant, fiery red like a maple leaf, yet emitted no heat and didn't burn anything in the house.
Time flew by, and just as promised in the letter, a Hogwarts professor arrived at Victor's home on the third day.
In the living room of the Swinton's small villa, a stern voice suddenly came from the direction of the living room, and the fireball in Victor's hand instantly vanished.
"Finite Incantatem!"
Victor stared at his now-empty hand, his eyes wide, with countless question marks and exclamation points appearing in his mind.
"...What the heck was that? What was the principle behind it?!"
Just now, the witch in front of him had simply waved her wand and said a curse, and his magic was dispelled. It made Victor question his entire existence.
Yes! The magic that made up his fireball was simply dispersed right in front of him, for no reason at all!
Victor had seen spells that negated an opponent's magic before. In Earth Land, a few types of magic and mages had similar abilities.
But this was different.
There was no trace of magic flowing from the professor's wand. She had simply waved it and uttered a curse, and his condensed fireball was reduced to nothing, returning to the air as ordinary magic.
The principle behind it was so incomprehensible that even Victor's Origin magic hadn't reacted in time.
And as Victor was trying to figure it out, the Hogwarts professor, who was simply there to guide a new student, was also experiencing a storm of emotions.
The magic cast by the as-yet-un-enrolled student was so strong that she had to use the advanced spell, Finite Incantatem. She knew that this was the most powerful counter-spell in the wizarding world. It was a spell that was only used against exceptionally powerful magic, such as the Fiendfyre curse.
But what was the deal with this student? As far as she knew, the family she was visiting was a completely ordinary Muggle family. Where did he learn this kind of magic? And how had he managed to evade the Ministry of Magic's detection?
Yes, the one who had come to the Swinton's home was none other than Hogwarts' Deputy Headmistress, the head of Gryffindor House, Professor Minerva McGonagall.
In the original books, she was a powerful witch and a master Transfigurer who diligently served as Hogwarts' Deputy Headmistress. Students often saw her as strict and demanding, but in reality, she was best described as having a warm heart beneath a cold exterior, and she also possessed a dry sense of humor. She was an Animagus who could transform into a tabby cat, which was her area of expertise.
And today, she had come to the Swinton home as Victor Dreyar's escort professor.