"The logical connection lies in the body's capacity to bear the strain."
Sirius abruptly stepped closer, his tall frame completely overshadowing Umbridge.
"Golden Skynet's highest-tier campus security array draws on the surrounding magic at every moment to sustain its dome.
If the students don't first undergo these Muggle endurance drills you call barbaric and drastically increase their muscles' tolerance for magic,
the moment the shield becomes fully operational, that high-frequency magical back pressure will crush their internal organs."
All color drained from Umbridge's face in shock.
"This is pseudomagic... this is outright extortion! The Ministry of Magic will never acknowledge such alarmist nonsense!"
"Call it whatever you like, but the parents have already bought that trust outright with their signatures.
And under the Commercial Code, this Contract is indisputably enforceable."
Sirius's long fingers landed at the bottom of the Contract's third chapter, tapping the line of scarlet Gothic lettering.
"It states it quite clearly here. You do, of course, have the authority to single-handedly veto these children going hungry and cold, Madam Deputy Director.
One word from you, and training stops immediately. But the price-"
His voice abruptly dropped, turning cold and sharp.
"Under the seventh breach-of-contract clause, the institution represented by any official who signs an order halting these preliminary safety drills must pay the Marauders Power Company an equipment disconnection penalty of sixty thousand Galleons in full."
"Sixty... sixty thousand Galleons?!"
Umbridge drew a sharp, stricken breath, her right hand trembling violently around her quill.
"You've always been farsighted, so I've prepared two settlement options for you."
Sirius coldly stripped away her last bit of breathing room.
"Do you intend to personally sign a sizable IOU on the Ministry of Magic's behalf right now?
Or should I contact the Daily Prophet this instant and inform Cornelius that he