Murphy glanced at him.
He remembered the question Laura Kruger had asked him back then.
She had asked whether, if he found a way to turn ordinary people into wizards, he would mind sharing that power.
At the time, Murphy had answered that he did not know yet. She should ask him again when that became possible.
Now, that moment had arrived.
"No," Murphy said. "There's no need to stop."
"The power of magic doesn't belong to me alone, nor do I have the right to deny others access to it. On this road to the very limits of magic, we're all fellow travelers. I've merely taken a few steps ahead."
If his goal had merely been to gain dominion, then the more people possessed magic, the less power he would have.
But that was not his goal. What he wanted was to reach the very limits of magic.
This had never been a path of zero-sum competition. It was a path of cooperation, where more fellow travelers meant everyone could go farther.
Andrew breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Director."
Murphy nodded. "Let's get back to the matter at hand."
"You mentioned creating a potion with wizards as the target, but wizards possess magic. They can't count as ordinary animals—they should count as fantastic beasts too, shouldn't they? Have you made a breakthrough with Magical Magus technology?"
"There hasn't actually been a breakthrough," Andrew said, scratching his head. "What makes Magical Magus harder than Advanced Magus is that when tissue from fantastic beasts is added to the potion, the magic in that tissue disrupts the potion's magical balance. It can even clash with the wizard's own magic, causing more violent mutations."
"Compared to Advanced Magus, these mutations are so severe that even a Patronus can't suppress them. That