"There's nothing I can do."
Professor Roscoe pushed the documents back across the desk.
Parchment was not particularly suitable for Oxford, so Gavin had switched to a full set of Muggle forms—
A birth certificate, a guardian's authorization, an expedited passport application, and a Romanian visa application with only the last two fields left blank.
Gavin sat across the desk without reaching for them.
"Last year, when you dumped that invited presentation for the fifteenth Semiconductor Conference on me, you said, 'You have no idea how well-connected your professor is.'"
"That was an academic conference last year!"
Professor Roscoe took off his glasses and rubbed his temples hard.
"This year, you not only want an expedited visa, you also want to take a fourteen-year-old minor on an academic visit—I teach computer science, not international human trafficking!"
"Which is why I've already had someone handle the legal side," Gavin said calmly. "Now all you need to do is call on your connections."
Professor Roscoe put his glasses back on and looked down at the desk.
His words had not caused stamps to sprout in those two blank fields.
Of course, Gavin could have conjured one with Transfiguration, but for now, he still wanted to be a law-abiding citizen.
If he kept dragging Cordelia into breaking the law, he really would become the delinquent boyfriend.
Professor Roscoe glanced again at Cordelia by the window.
Ever since entering the office, she had sat elegantly on the wooden chair by the window, her light-colored dress falling past her knees and her silver-blonde hair impeccably arranged, holding a hefty copy of Introduction to Computer Architecture taken from the professor's bookshelf.
She was staring intently at an integrated circuit diagram, her expression as solemn as if she were studying some ancient legal code.
Unfortunately, the book