Magnus stared at a handful of s in his palms.

  ‘I should run for it,’ he thought.

  Looking around, no one seemed to spare even a g him. He could disappear, and no one would even bother.

  Hoy was a virtue that did not e easy to the likes of him. As a matter of fact, it did ireet vocabury.

  Back there, only y ruled. you did what you had to do to beat yet another day.

  And right now, what he needed was money, and here was money. Right in his palms.

  ‘He trusted you… the man trusted you,’ an alien voice whispered to him.

  sideration.

  This too was an enemy of y. He shouldn’t even spare a thought about a himself.

  Besides, it wouldn’t be stealing… and he also had pces to go. Otherwise, he would have waited for the man to return.

  ‘Huh, like hell you would,’ that cocky voieered. ‘Still, he will find you. This is not your usual London, you know… this is freaking Harry Potter . There is magi the picture. He will find you.’

  The voice had shifted now from sideration to logid logic was something Magnus never ignored.

  “Damn,” he cursed, feeling the excitement that had begun to build defte like a punctured balloon.

  “We wait, then.”

  “Crack.”

  Magnus recoiled as the man appeared just a foot from where he was.

  ‘Bless the gods fic,’ Magnus whispered inwardly.

  The man now carried both his poud the Meowth, which looked limp but whose eyes were surprisingly still gring at the s in Magnus’s hand as he hahem back to the man.

  “Here… I think I got all of them.”

  The wizard’s suspicious eyes studied him for a few seds before he set the limp Pokémon down and accepted his money.

  He was still gng at Magnus, as if trying to piy sign of deceit, but he found none.

  “Well… you have my deepest gratitude, kid,” he said as he handed Magnus a gold galleon.

  Magnus stared at him in disbelief. He knew enough about wizard currency tnize how generous this was.

  “It’s really not necessary, sir,” Magnus said.

  He desperately he money, but this felt like too much for just helping someoher scattered s.

  The man could have easily do himself with some spell, had he not been in such a flustered state.

  “A modest d too, I see. You’ve got the right upbringing, boy. I, however, must insist.”

  Magnus was sure his behavior had nothing to do with his upbringing. If anything, had he he , that might have been bmed on where he came from.

  Oher hand, saying no to money wasly an option.

  Magnus had learo survive modern life well enough, but now he’d been thrown bato the eens. Figuring out how things worked here would take time—time his needs didn’t care about. He had to eat. And in a few hours, night would fall, and he’d have to find a way to brave the cold.

  “Thank you so much, sir,” Magnus said, his gratitude genuine as he accepted the galleon.

  The man smiled and turo leave, but after a few steps, he hesitated, his eyes sweeping nus with the air of someone who wao say something but wasn’t sure how to start.

  For a brief sed, Magnus’s smile wavered. Maybe the guy had realized something didn’t add up. Or maybe he’d just remembered he’d handed old galleon instead of a sickle. Either way, why was he staring so ily?

  “Hey, kid, are you waiting for someone? You looked a bit stranded earlier. First time in Diagon Alley?”

  Magnus blinked, caught off guard.

  That wasn’t the question he’d been expeg. His instinct screamed at him to lie—what if someone from St. Mungo’s or the Ministry was already after him? He couldn’t risk giving away his whereabouts.

  “Yes,” he answered.

  The man’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but no one looked more baffled than Magnus himself.

  That wasn’t what he wao say. Somehow, his mouth was w against him.

  “Is that so? But how… You’re old enough to have been here at least once… unless—” The man trailed off, his expression growing more intrigued by the sed.

  “You ’t be a Muggle; they ’t evehrough the barriers, they? Are your parents Muggles, sonny?”

  It was a simple question, but to Magnus, it felt loaded.

  He’d never known his parents. The story at the children’s home was that he’d bee at their gates, and he’d never cared enough to dig deeper.

  But now… now it felt worth w.

  Was his mother a Muggle or a witch? Did she know he had magic? Or was that why she abandoned him—had something happened when he was little? Had he done something that freaked her out?

  The thoughts raced through his head before he pushed them aside.

  This stranger didn’t o know any of it.

  “I never knew my parents,” Magnus said ftly. Not like someone who was sad about it—just someone who didn’t care.

  And holy, he didn’t. But that didn’t ge the fact that he hadn’t po share that detail. His mouth, apparently, had other ideas.

  Maybe it was the man’s disarming kindness, or maybe his survival instinct had kicked in, sensing this guy could help him. Either way, his hoy was running wild, and at this rate, he’d be spilling his life story like he was drunk on Viking mead.

  The man’s curiosity deepened. In fact, he turned back fully, pulled out his wand, and mumbled something.

  The Meowth on the ground stirred, looking pletely healed.

  To Magnus’s surprise, the creature didn’t scamper away. Instead, it rubbed its head against the man’s robes while staring at Magnus’s hand with uling iy.

  Not taking any ces, Magnus quickly shoved the galleon into his pocket.

  “Sorry about that… So, you live with yrandparents then?”

  In all hoy, Magnus couldn’t uand why the man cared so much—or why he himself hadn’t walked away by now.

  Maybe it was fate. That was the only expnation for why he kept talking. It felt like when someone drank Felix Felicis and just knew nothing could g.

  “No, I live oreets, sir. The Muggle streets.”

  Magnus breathed out slowly. For all his hoy, even he khere were limits.

  No way was he going to mention that those streets beloo a world where this man was nothing more than a fial character.

  “Merlin’s beard… You don’t mean you’re one of those kids… Why, I’ve met them myself! Even hired a few to help me harvest berries on my farm.”

  Magnus wao ask if there were homeless kids in the magical world too but quickly realized the answer for himself.

  With magieone like Mundungus Fletcher robably as bad as it got.

  The man seemed to take Magnus’s silence as firmation and tinued, “So… how did you find out? Oh, you must’ve gotten ywarts letter, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” he said curtly, hoping to end this disturbing line of inquiry. Even hoy had its limits.

  The guy was silent for a while, and Magnus turo leave.

  “Wait.”

  Magnus turned, looking almost frustrated. He was hungry, and he was dying to use his newly found galleon to find something to eat.

  “I was thinking…” The maated, clearly trying to find the words.

  “I do have some deliveries here, and truthfully, I am in need of a hand… if you are… I mean, if you want to make some malleons, I would…”

  “Yes… yes, I will… I mean, I will do… anything,” Magnus rambled, even before the man was done voig his request.

  God, what was there to think of? A short while ago, he had been about to rob a man.

  Perhaps the universe was rewarding his hoy… well, it was more fear, but it had ultimately led to hoy. In any case, who was tending?