"Hey! Harry, you're here~"
At Buckingham Palace, in the same familiar drawing room as before, Prince Charles rose as soon as he saw Harry and welcomed him with a hug.
"Ah... The Dursley Family's foul language was so vile that even hearing it on the broadcast made me cringe!" After they had greeted each other, Prince Charles patted Harry's shoulder with a seemingly sympathetic expression. "My boy, you really shouldn't have gone there in person."
"Thank you for your concern... But it was my responsibility to bear! I'm the plaintiff in this case. How could I let a few insults from the defendants scare me into backing down?"
Harry looked grateful, but still shook his head firmly.
To be fair, just as the prince had said, Harry hadn't needed to attend today's public hearing.
Prince Charles had asked his aide to warn him that if he showed up at the hearing, the Dursley Family would hurl some truly nasty abuse at him.
But Harry had felt he had to be there.
The whole affair had ended in a resounding victory for him, and of course the Dursley Family wouldn't accept that quietly. It was only natural that they'd curse him out in court.
What they didn't know was that once they had made such a hysterical spectacle of themselves at the hearing, no matter how well they behaved in prison afterward, they wouldn't get a chance of having their sentences reduced!!
And as for Vernon's threat to get revenge on him after he got out?
Hmph. As if!
Harry could confidently swear that if the Dursley Family really dared to come back for revenge once the dust had settled... he wouldn't have to go to nearly as much trouble to deal with them next time!
"Oh, Harry, you're such an honest boy. Every word you say rings out like the sword of the goddess of justice." Prince Charles clasped Harry's hand excitedly. "If every child in Britain were as clever, brave, and justice-minded as you, how bright this country's future would be!"
"Your Royal Highness, you give me far too much credit..."
Harry's mouth twitched awkwardly. He didn't consider himself thin-skinned, but Prince Charles was laying it on a bit thick~
"No, no, not at all!" the prince hastily protested, waving his hands. "In fact, if I could, I'd adopt you myself. If William and Harry could grow up with you and learn from you, I'd be more than delighted as their father!"
"That..."
"But, unfortunately..." Before Harry could speak, the prince's expression immediately turned dejected. "Harry, you know... The Royal Family has already interfered too much in your affairs... So, when it comes to your future adoption, I... Ah~"
Prince Charles gave a heavy sigh, his face practically written over with guilt at being unable to help.
"Your Royal Highness, you've already done more for me these past few days than I could ever forget." Harry rose and bowed solemnly to the prince, then asked earnestly, "You can just tell me what the decision is about my adoption."
"Very well... Harry, take a look at this first." The prince beckoned over his shoulder, and his aide, who had been ready and waiting, immediately handed him a booklet dozens of pages thick.
"This is... a list of families willing to adopt me? Why are there so many?"
Harry flipped through it quickly. Dozens of pages were filled on both sides with profiles of families who had agreed to adopt him. That meant there were at least eighty families willing to take him in, if not a hundred!
Good grief... When had he become so popular?
"Harry, the list the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor received at first only had twenty families on it..." Prince Charles explained apologetically. "Later, I decided to expand it to a hundred. I'm sorry, my boy... This is all I could do for you."
"Your Royal Highness... Please allow me to offer you my most heartfelt thanks once again!"
At that moment, whether Prince Charles was using him or not, he absolutely deserved Harry's sincere gratitude.
How could Harry not have guessed what sort of families those original twenty were?
They were no doubt families Dumbledore had picked to keep watching him after the Dursley Family went to prison. He still hadn't given up, so he'd pressured the British Government into putting forward twenty families who could continue to keep tabs on Harry!
And the British Government had been under too much pressure to remove those twenty families from the list outright. So Prince Charles had simply expanded the pool, giving Harry a one-in-a-hundred choice!
That brought his odds of picking a bad one down to one in five.
For Harry, that was already the best outcome he could hope for.
Prince Charles must have done everything he could to negotiate. If Harry still got unlucky with a one-in-five chance, he'd just have to accept his fate for the time being.
"Harry, you can take this list home and look it over carefully. Once you've made your decision, you can officially announce your choice at the press conference!"
"I understand... Thank you again for your help!"
After thanking Prince Charles once more, Harry left Buckingham Palace with the aide.
But Harry didn't see that once he was gone, the prince, whose face had been weary and dejected, gradually began to smile.
In truth, it didn't matter to Prince Charles which family on the list adopted Harry.
Whether he grew up in an ordinary family or a wizarding one, Dumbledore would definitely take him to the Wizarding World!
But after this little maneuver, Harry's dislike of the Wizarding World would only grow stronger, while the prince could show him as much goodwill as possible.
Come to think of it, he really did owe thanks to that Minister for Magic for her "generosity"~
If she hadn't been so high-handed in front of the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor, he wouldn't have had the chance to push things along so smoothly.
Ah, he hoped Harry, caught in the middle of this struggle, would make the choice he wanted to make...
Even if only for a little while~
The prince would never make tea himself
At night, Highgrove House was tranquil and peaceful. In the stillness, only the occasional hoot of an owl broke the silence.
Though night had fallen, a dim yellow light still shone in the guest room. Harry, finally free of the Dursley Family, sat at the desk, carefully reading through the list of families willing to adopt him that he'd received from Prince Charles.
After reading through it once, Harry realized that avoiding the twenty traps hidden among the hundred families wouldn't be easy.
Some families were easy to identify. For instance, those described as ancient families whose histories stretched back to the 1930s were definitely wizarding families.
Others were harder to distinguish. Presumably, people from the Wizarding World were keeping an eye on them, so Prince Charles couldn't leave the clues too obvious.
Still, Harry had more or less settled on a reasonably reliable way to tell them apart.
For example, in some families, the descriptions of the head of the household's job were vague. Some were so obviously made up that those families had to be wizards!
Creak~
The door behind him creaked softly. Harry looked back and saw the prince's eldest son, William, pushing his way in.
In his other hand, he carried a tray with a fine tea set on it.
"Your Highness?" Harry raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Why are you still up so late?"
"I was worried about you~" Prince William glanced instinctively at Harry's forehead, then poured him a cup of steaming hot tea. "Have some. It'll help you relax."
"Um... Thank you for your concern." Harry hesitated, then thanked him, but didn't pick up the teacup. Instead, he rubbed his forehead in frustration.
"Are you worried about choosing an adoptive family?" Prince William asked with concern.
"Yeah... There are a hundred families, and they all do different things. There are so many to choose from, it's giving me a headache~"
Harry complained wearily. He seemed a little impatient, and as he stretched, he pushed the list aside with a pout.
"If you don't mind, I can help you decide." Prince William picked up the list that had slid in front of him. After flipping through it casually, he pointed to one family and asked Harry, "What do you think of the Abbott family?"
"Hm?" Harry narrowed his eyes, then immediately shook his head. "No. There's a girl my age in the Abbott family. It wouldn't be convenient to live together."
So that was it... Prince William had been acting a little strange ever since he came in.
Harry lowered his eyes, doing his best not to let the other man realize he was watching him. Sure enough, Prince William began flipping rapidly through the list.
"Then what about the Brown family or the Goldstein family? Both of those should have boys~"
Prince William didn't notice Harry's suspicions. He kept enthusiastically helping him look for a suitable family.
"Your Highness, don't trouble yourself over my affairs." Harry smiled as he picked up the red tea beside him and began strolling around the room as if to relax. "All these families are more or less the same anyway. I'll just pick one at random when the time comes."
"How can you pick at random?!" Prince William's tone grew urgent at once. "Harry, I'm sure you understand how important a good adoptive family is! You have to be extremely careful when making your choice! If those two families won't do, then what about the Longbottoms..."
"All right, my dear prince. While you're worrying about me, don't forget about your own family." Harry smiled warmly as he changed the subject. "The Prince went to a polo club gathering tonight. Has he still not come back?"
"That Muggle... I mean, my father. He should be back soon." Prince William's voice twisted strangely for a moment.
"Oh, what about the princess?" Harry gradually wandered behind the prince and casually continued, "I heard she had a charity ball tonight. It should be over soon too, shouldn't it?"
"Soon... Soon! My mother should be back soon too."
"And what about little Prince Harry? Has he gone to bed already?"
"Of course he has. It's so late, after all~"
After several questions in a row, Prince William seemed to have regained his composure, and his tone grew light again.
"Then... what about Prince William?"
"Of course he's in his own... Wait!!"
The "Prince William" suddenly realized something and whipped around, only to be greeted by a splash of tea right in the face!!
"Gaaaah!!"
A shrill scream shattered the silence of the night. The impostor had been doused in scalding tea, and he couldn't open his eyes!
But just as he instinctively tried to wipe them, Harry had already snatched up the teapot from the table and swung it hard at the man's head!!
Crash!
The expensive tea set shattered on the floor, and a vivid red stream was already running down the impostor's forehead.
"Tch, did I hit him too lightly?" Harry clicked his tongue in annoyance, then quickly turned and ran for the door, privately regretting that there wasn't a handy "weapon" in the guest room.
If he'd had a brick in his hand right now, he'd probably have won already. Why would he have to hit and run?
"Don't even think about running! Incarcerous!!"
But just as Harry was about to grab the doorknob, a beam of light shot past him and sealed the door shut!
"Fuck!" Harry cursed bitterly. He'd guessed that his opponent was a wizard in disguise and had tried to strike first, but he'd still been too slow.
"Damn you... you little brat!" The impostor angrily wiped the water from his face, his body beginning to shudder and change.
He certainly wasn't the eight-year-old Prince William. He was a tall, broad-shouldered, middle-aged man!
"Damn it! I used Polyjuice Potion. How did you figure it out, you brat who hasn't even started at magic school?!" The middle-aged man straightened his clothes and cursed indignantly.
Harry's sudden attack had caught him completely off guard. Now he warily drew his wand!
"It's simple!" Harry pressed himself as close to the door as he could, his voice rising several octaves. "Prince William isn't an ordinary British noble! No matter how well he knew me, he'd never pour my tea himself!!"
"I see..."
"And there's more!!" Seeing that the man seemed about to make a move, Harry hurriedly shouted, "The princess too! She and the prince have been at odds lately, so she won't be coming back to the manor after the ball tonight!!"
"Hmph, not bad~" A playful smile gradually spread across the middle-aged man's face. "I didn't expect to hear royal Muggle gossip while I was here!"
"Muggle... Who the hell are you?!" Harry shouted in feigned surprise, but inside he was already frantic.
What was going on?
He'd been shouting himself hoarse for so long. Had every guard at Highgrove House dropped dead or something?!
"I'm John Dawlish, a noble wizard!" The middle-aged man sneered smugly. "You can stop wasting your time trying to stall me, kid! Every Muggle in this manor, including those two Muggle princes, has already been hit with my spell. No one can hear you calling for help!!"
"What did you say?!"
At that moment, Harry's face suddenly darkened!
Chapter 13: Harry was not someone you should mess with
"What... Are you scared already?"
Seeing the tension on Harry's face, Dawlish grinned even more triumphantly.
As expected, a kid was just a kid. Threaten him a little and he was nearly wetting his pants~
"Don't worry. I'm an Auror, unlike those Death Eaters who skulk in the dark. I have no interest in taking the lives of Muggles." Dawlish struck a lofty pose. "They're just asleep. Their lives aren't in danger..."
"That's not what I asked!" Harry cut him off sharply. "You just said... you actually cast a spell on two children too?!"
"Hey, I don't see what the problem is!" Dawlish waved his wand indifferently. "When you're dealing with a bunch of Muggles who can't understand magic, what else am I supposed to do? If I didn't cast a Stunning Spell on them, I'd have to let them discover me and cause even more trouble?"
"So... this is how wizards behave?"
Harry's voice gradually sank, and the corner of his mouth began to twitch. The emotions that had only recently settled back down were already surging restlessly once more!
He'd already sensed how overbearing the Wizarding World was from the difficulties Prince Charles had faced. Now, Dawlish's lofty attitude gave him a direct taste of the contempt these self-proclaimed noble wizards felt for ordinary people!!
What gave him the right to sneer as he called ordinary people who couldn't use magic "Muggles"?
And what gave him the right to casually say he'd cast a spell on two innocent children?!
Before you continue