Someone from the Ministry of Magic (Revised)

Chapter 10: Ministry Personnel Arrive

The owl was extremely swift, and when Su Er and the others arrived home, they saw a thick stack of books already piled up at the entrance of the Granger family's house.

"It seems, well, a little too much, oh." Hermione stuck out her tongue in embarrassment.

In the days that followed, Hermione naturally immersed herself in magic books.

Every day she carried her wand to the Ellison family's house to practice the spells mentioned in that Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1, such as the mending charm, the levitation charm, the unlocking charm, and so on.

As everyone knows, to practice magic, one must have objects upon which magic can be used.

For example, the unlocking charm requires a locked lock as its target, so the locks of the Granger family became the experimental subjects.

And young witches and wizards often cannot control the magic power in their bodies, which easily makes the power of the spells just a tiny bit too strong or a tiny bit too weak.

Hermione looked innocently at the hole billowing blue smoke on her front door, with Mrs. Ellison standing on the other side of the hole.

"Miss Granger, I must remind you that this is already the fourth lock our family has changed."

"I'm sorry, Mum." Hermione lowered her head and sincerely admitted her mistake.

Su Er stood on the lawn, happily tossing a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans into his mouth.

Oh, damn, it was the rotten egg flavor.

"You have to teach me. I followed the key points written in the book completely to cast the spells, but why do I always fail?" Hermione walked up to Su Er with a look of frustration.

"It's not fair. Why is it so easy for you to learn?"

This... how should he tell Hermione? He really had learned the basic spells without practicing many times, and he himself didn't know what was going on.

"Um, maybe you can ask your wand?" Su Er uttered a sentence hesitantly.

Hermione widened her eyes. "You're fobbing me off again!"

"No, you demonstrate it to me again. I'll take a look."

"Gege, what are you guys doing?" Angel, having woken up from a nap, hopped and skipped downstairs. "Are you practicing magic again?"

"When are you going to turn a unicorn into a toy for me?"

"I'll turn one for you after I learn how. I'm going to demonstrate magic to the silly Granger right now. Can Angel help me go inside the house and lock the door?"

"Okay." Angel hopped and skipped into the house again, obediently locking the door.

"You're the silly one, humph, big pighead!" Hermione glared fiercely at Su Er, and walked angrily to the door. "Aren't you coming over?"

Su Er shrugged, still pulled out his wand, and walked toward Hermione.

That night, Hermione had dinner at the Ellison family's house. During the meal, the mischievous Angel broke a porcelain plate, so Hermione took out her wand and volunteered herself.

The ideal was full and plump, but reality was exceptionally cruel.

Amidst the expectant gazes of Mr. and Mrs. Ellison, she made that shattered porcelain plate even more shattered.

"Ha..." Su Er let out a snort of laughter, which drew a predatory gaze like that of a little lioness.

"Su Er?" Mrs. Ellison glared at him with equal annoyance.

Fine, fine, Su Er took his wand back from Angel's hand.

"Reparo!" Under the tip of the wand, the shattered porcelain plate seemed to be pulled and gathered together by invisible threads, returning to its original state.

Angel clapped her hands happily. "Gege is amazing."

"What's so great about it?" Hermione muttered, curling her lips.

Su Er glanced triumphantly at Hermione, and returned the wand to Angel.

Outside the house, two people wearing cloaks emerged hurriedly from the night. One of them looked around for a moment, seemed to be muttering something, and then took out a silver, box-like thing from his cloak. He opened the box, on top of which was a small clasp.

He held it up high and pressed the clasp. The box emitted a crisp "click" sound, and the street lamp closest to them went out, followed closely by the other lights extinguishing quietly.

Until No. 445 completely plunged into darkness, he put the box back into his bosom.

"Is this the place, Nymphadora?" A muffled male voice turned to look at the other person beside him.

"Don't call me Nymphadora." She complained with dissatisfaction, taking off the hood from her head to reveal her fair face and fiery red hair. "That bunch at the Ministry said it's here, so it should be right."

"The magical aura here is weak beyond belief. We can just leave it alone," she said.

Inside the house, Su Er held a chicken drumstick, unconscionably moving it close and away to keep Angel from getting it easily, while Mr. and Mrs. Ellison watched the fun from the side, and bursts of laughter rang out in the dining room.

"Tap, tap." A knock on the door came.

Angel twisted her body anxiously, wanting to get down to open the door, but because the small chair Angel usually used was locked in her room, she could only sit in the baby high chair.

Mrs. Ellison carried her down, and Angel ran all the way to the entryway and opened the door.

"Wow, what a cute little girl." A female voice drifted in from outside. "What's your name?"

"My name is Angel. Big sister, are you wizards?" Angel chatted familiarly with the newcomers for a few words.

Subsequently, the little girl walked in with two people wearing wizard robes.

It was a black wizard with a resolute face, and a witch with fiery red hair.

The witch scanned everyone present, turned her head, and complained to the male wizard, "I told you, there definitely aren't any wizards attacking Muggles or anything of the sort."

"Hello, I am Kingsley Shacklebolt." The male wizard likewise scanned the room, then breathed a sigh of relief, and took off his cloak. "We are from the Ministry of Magic Auror Office."

"Wizard? What is it you want?" Mr. Ellison asked with a puzzled look.

"It seems we worried for nothing." He said, "The Ministry received reports of frequent magical fluctuations appearing in this neighborhood, and we were worried that a wizard was attacking Muggles, which violates the laws of the Wizarding World."

"Are you Hogwarts first-years?" Kingsley turned his gaze to the only two teenagers at the table, his eyes pausing slightly as he swept across Su Er's face.

"Yes." Hermione said cautiously, "We've been practicing magic recently, may I ask-"

"Oh, it doesn't matter." The witch spoke up, "There have been frequent incidents of wizards attacking Muggles lately, so the Ministry's nerves are a bit frayed. By the way, I'm Nymphadora Tonks, but I don't like people calling me Nymphadora. Just call me Tonks."

"A reminder, first-years had best not use magic in private. This is a friendly warning."

"Oh, oh." Hermione nodded.

"Is the Wizarding World this dangerous?" Mrs. Ellison asked worriedly, suddenly feeling a bit reluctant to let Su Er go learn magic, even if it truly was extraordinary and magical.

"Hogwarts is very safe, ma'am." Kingsley spoke up, "Dumbledore is one of the most powerful wizards in the Wizarding World today. With his protection, there won't be any problems."

Mrs. Ellison clearly did not completely believe his words.

"Big sister." Angel ran over quietly to the witch's side, "Can you turn into a unicorn?"

"A unicorn?" Tonks tilted her head in confusion, "Fantastic Beasts can't be conjured with magic, my dear."

"But... but..." Angel said anxiously, "The old man with the white beard conjured one for Angel."

"An old man with the white beard?"

"It's Headmaster Dumbledore, he once came here." Su Er spoke up, "He probably just conjured a horse that looked like a unicorn."

Over the past few days, Su Er and Hermione had read quite a few textbooks required by the school, and the opening page of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration featured Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, one rule of which was that objects or living creatures with magical properties could not be conjured out of thin air through Transfiguration.

"That's simple." Tonks snapped her fingers and took out her wand.

"Tonks!" The wizard frowned unhappily, "Don't forget, the Ministry doesn't allow us to use magic in front of Muggles."

Yet Tonks waved her hand indifferently, "Relax, we're just showing these Hogwarts first-years a little bit of the wonder of magic."

With that, she turned her head and looked around, seemingly searching for a suitable object to transfigure.

"If you don't mind, use this." Su Er patted the stool underneath him.

"Oh, thank you, darling." Tonks smiled charmingly, causing Hermione at the side to wrinkle her nose.

Under Tonks's wand, the chair twisted and transfigured, turning into a silver horse, though it lacked a horn on top.

"Almost forgot." She said, and then waved her wand.

A single horn "grew" from the top of the horse's head.

"All done." She put her wand back into her wizard robes and clapped her hands.

Angel had already cheered, itching to climb up onto it, but no matter how she wriggled, the horse wouldn't move at all.

"It won't move." Angel said aggrievedly.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry." Tonks said, "Professor Dumbledore's transfiguration is much more advanced than mine, I can't reach his level yet."

"The Bones family's transfiguration is very famous in the Wizarding World..." Kingsley spoke up, his gaze shifting to Su Er.

Hearing the name Bones from another wizard's mouth yet again, was it truly that famous in the Wizarding World?

Forgive Su Er for searching his memory to the bone and finding nothing regarding the Bones family; he only vaguely remembered that there was a young girl named Susan Bones in the same year at Hogwarts in the movies.

He didn't know whether this Bones and his Bones were one and the same.

"You're of the Bones family? But..." Tonks looked at Su Er in surprise and doubt.

"My name is Su Er Ellison now." Su Er shook his head and said.

Kingsley was silent for a moment, then said, "Bones is a heroic and glorious name..."

"But the Bones family doesn't strictly need me, do they, Mr. Wizard?" Su Er said softly, even if the Bones family enjoyed a sterling reputation in the wizarding world or was wealthier than nations.

Yet raised under the loving care of Mr. and Mrs. Ellison, he hoped that at least here, he still had an Ellison.

(I know quite a few readers think this arrangement isn't very good and feels a bit grating, but this involves the subsequent plot. Hmm... the protagonist does accept the Bones surname later on, give him some time. If you really dislike it, you can skip this chapter; it won't affect the subsequent reading, please don't argue... The humble author bows in gratitude.)

The atmosphere instantly plunged into a stalemate.

"Su Er!" Mr. Ellison suddenly spoke in a loud voice, which was very rare; he seemed somewhat angry.

Kingsley sighed, his expression appearing somewhat drained. "Let's go, Tonks." He said.

The two wizards quickly left the Ellison home, and the street lamps lit up one by one after they left.

Later on, Hermione left as well; before leaving, he cast a worried glance at Su Er.

"Come with me." Mr. Ellison left behind those rigid words, then went upstairs.

Su Er hesitated in place for a moment, and finally followed up under Mrs. Ellison's silent comfort.

In the second-floor study, Su Er and Mr. Ellison sat facing each other in a spell of silence.

"Su Er." Mr. Ellison said, "I know you definitely have an origin that belongs to you."

"Dad..." Su Er's lips trembled as he spoke.

Mr. Ellison went on speaking regardless:

"When Suli found you back then, your name was written on your swaddling clothes, Su Er Bones. Yes, we knew from the very beginning about your surname, and that blanket has been well-kept by your mother all this time."

"Over the years, I also asked around to see if there was a family called the Bones family, but there was never any news."

Mr. Ellison sighed.

"Even though you aren't our biological child, Suli has always treated you like her own son, and so have I."

"Actually, your full name should be Su Er Bones Ellison."

"My reason for wanting to help you find your birth family is that I believe, whether you want to accept that surname or not, your life was ultimately given to you by them."

"The grace of birth cannot be erased. Even if they have already passed away, the blood flowing through your veins is that of the Bones."

"I don't know what the Bones family means in the Wizarding World or how prominent they might be, but I just hope you understand gratitude and acceptance."

"Some things, and some responsibilities, cannot be wished away."

"You're a smart kid, you should understand what I mean." Mr. Ellison looked at Su Er with expectant eyes.

"I understand, Dad." After a moment of silence, Su Er nodded.

Ellison smiled with relief. "Alright, go downstairs and play with Angel."

Su Er nodded, stood up, and opened the study door. Mrs. Ellison was standing outside with a worried expression. Su Er was stunned for a moment, then pulled her into a tight hug.

"Thank you, Mom."

Mrs. Ellison smiled, gently hugging Su Er and stroking his head.

"You're welcome, child."