Half an hour later, on the top floor of Hogwarts, in Dumbledore's Headmaster's Office.
"...Then I used Apparition to leave the alley and returned to the open space outside our house. I'd barely taken two steps when I saw a threatening letter pinned to the door with a knife. Here's the knife. You know what happened after that."
Dumbledore sat behind his desk, looking somewhat at a loss for words. Roy and Mia sat opposite him. It was Mia's first time at Hogwarts, and she gazed around with curiosity at the Headmaster's Office's elaborate decor and moving portraits. Roy, usually so easygoing, looked uneasy. Partly because he had accidentally attacked Dumbledore, and partly because the attacker had genuinely shaken him.
Dumbledore listened gravely as Roy explained everything in detail. Once he understood what had happened that day, even the usually unflappable Dumbledore looked troubled. He glanced at Mia, who seemed not to have a care in the world, then gave Roy a slight nod.
"So you see? I wasn't misusing Dark Magic. Their methods were downright sinister. They hijacked the Ministry of Magic's Floo Network without warning, then beat me senseless in an alley. If they'd sent two more people, or been a little more ruthless, Mia and I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you."
Dumbledore picked up the steel dagger Roy had placed on the desk and examined it. He could make nothing of it by sight alone, but he kept it anyway. He intended to use magic to investigate what lay behind the threats.
"All right, Roy. I'll let it go this time. But you must understand that you cannot keep using the Unforgivable Curses so recklessly. If the person visiting you today had happened to be Cedric or Aisling instead of me, you might well have