There Was Always Someone Who Defied the Rules

The next morning, Andrew woke from a wonderful night's sleep, took a quick stock of what he had gained, and went off to breakfast in high spirits.

Although his first class was Transfiguration, he had no intention of submitting his thesis that day. He wanted to refine his work as much as he could. Crude as it was, every little improvement helped.

But at breakfast, he realized something was off. Owls flew into the Dining Hall in a frenzy, delivering parcels so thick and fast they might as well have been snowflakes.

He barely managed to keep owl feathers out of his bowl.

"Good heavens, what's going on?"

He asked the person beside him, who had received a parcel but whose name Andrew couldn't remember.

"Magical Legends, of course."

His classmate at the next table looked as though the answer was obvious.

Oh, Magical Legends. Come to think of it, today's the fifth. Publication day...

Andrew froze for a moment, then remembered. To make it seem as though he had nothing to do with that story, he hadn't even read the editor's polished version.

But why did Hogwarts have so many readers?!

Even professors at their table were getting owl deliveries!

This could kill me!

I should've known. I was only fooling myself...

Watching his classmates eagerly unwrap their parcels, Andrew finally faced the bleak misery of his life.

Lockhart, the famous bestselling author, could plaster his face all over the newspapers. Andrew, meanwhile, remained utterly unmoved.

He had excellent Expression Management and a thorough plan for any slipups. He had already adjusted his mindset. This was nothing worth worrying about.

"I've been spending my pocket money too quickly, so I had to choose between an owl and the magazine."

Andrew put on a regretful expression.

"That's a shame. But I can lend you mine if I finish it before tonight. It's just that the Charms homework..."

"No problem at all."

Andrew kept up the act to the bitter end.

This was no time to pretend he hadn't noticed. He was in enemy territory. He had to blend in and read it with everyone else, not draw attention by acting uninterested.

There was just one problem: with the new issue out, he needed to get to work on the next manuscript. He had to hand in the story by the first of next month at the latest.

"Hey, look over there."

Just as Andrew concluded what seemed like a pleasant enough deal, Hal nudged him. "There."

Andrew glanced over. Nothing strange was happening.

"Over there. The one walking past the Slytherin table."

Only then did Andrew notice an utterly ordinary Ravenclaw girl. She was of average height and average looks, with nothing about her that stood out. But as she passed the Slytherins, they avoided her like the plague.

"What's her story?"

Andrew lowered his voice. "Is she some professor's secret daughter?"

He wasn't guessing out of nowhere. It was rare to see the haughty Slytherins behave like that.

"Not at all. She's the one the Slytherins don't dare mention."

"Huh?"

"Yeah. A Muggle-born wizard who completely breaks the rules."

Why does this sound like something out of a Mary Sue story?

Perhaps Hal noticed Andrew's odd look, because he hurried to explain.

"That's possible?"

"Apparently."

Andrew nearly laughed. She really did break the rules.

In short, Europe had no shortage of nobles, and the Pure-bloods of the Wizarding world were wizards with noble titles. They had taken pride in that for years.

The Malfoy family, for example, had ancestors who had openly supported the current Muggle royal family. Though they withdrew into the Wizarding world after the Secrecy Law, they always brought it up when speaking of their ancestors' glory.

Yes, nobility and Pure-blood status went together nicely.

The other Pure-bloods were much the same. Linking themselves to the nobility was an excellent way to promote their standing.

But walk down a dark road often enough, and eventually you ran into a ghost.

While the Wizarding world tirelessly drew fresh blood from the Muggle world, it happened upon a new wizard whose family owned a castle, held a hereditary title, and had a well-documented, reliable family history. She herself stood to inherit.

At first, everything was normal. The witch was mild-mannered, worked reasonably hard, and had no quarrels with her classmates. Aside from her diligence in the niche subject of Ancient Runes, there was little to remark on. But near the end of her first term, someone called her a Mudblood.

Once she learned what the word meant, she erupted. She attacked the other student's bloodline, name, honor, and title at length, then wrote to the Board of Governors to condemn the incident, enclosing her family crest and the relevant documents as proof.

If an ordinary Muggle-born wizard had done that, nobody would likely have paid any attention. But every document submitted by this witch, Elizabeth, was genuine. Her family even had ties to the ancestors of several Board members.

That left them in a bind. Refusing to acknowledge her meant denying the glory of their own ancestors and undermining the very idea of wizarding nobility. But if they acknowledged her, what did that make a titled witch? An honored Pure-blood?

She was quite the loophole. As Hal described it, Andrew could almost imagine the headaches her appearance at Hogwarts had caused the School Governors.

Supposedly, they eventually agreed to treat her as the descendant of a noble Pure-blood family whose Squib line had returned to the Wizarding world. Hal said they had verified her Pure-blood ancestry, though Andrew suspected this was how they had managed it. She wasn't a Pure-blood in the strict sense, but they treated her as a Pure-blood descendant.

Too bad they probably wouldn't recognize the titles you can get just by donating money. Otherwise, making up a Pure-blood identity might be fun.

Andrew entertained a thought that could easily get him into more trouble and ignored the commotion over there. Ancient Runes and Ancient Magic were entirely different things. Even if some connection emerged later, he intended to spend his first year quietly studying Transfiguration and ask for nothing else.

For now, he would eat and wait for class.

Andrew settled down, finished his less-than-perfect breakfast, and found a good seat in the Transfiguration classroom. He planned to catch Professor McGonagall by the door after class and give her a brief report.

But he had underestimated his classmates. Someone really was reckless enough to try it...

"Confiscated. One point from Hufflepuff."

Professor McGonagall took a copy of Magical Legends up to the lectern. "I will repeat this one last time. Any distraction during Transfiguration can have the gravest consequences. Not even the slightest lapse in attention is acceptable."

Professor McGonagall was visibly struggling to contain her anger. Andrew abandoned his plan to approach her after class almost without thinking.

There aren't any new problems at the moment. I'll keep working on my own and hand in the thesis with next Monday's assignment.

That was Andrew's decision.