Tom’s explanation was perfectly clear.
At present, there was no law in the wizarding world specifically designed to deal with young witches and wizards like Eric who had yet to start school.
Students who had already begun attending a magical school were subject to strict regulations.
Until graduation, they were forbidden from using magic outside school.
But when it came to children who hadn’t formally enrolled yet, like Eric right now, there really weren’t any such restrictions.
In fact, young witches and wizards causing all sorts of trouble after their magical abilities awakened but before they started school was hardly unusual.
It happened every year.
Emotion was an important part of channelling magic.
And children were naturally emotionally unstable.
They laughed when they were happy and threw tantrums when they weren’t.
Witches and wizards were no different from Muggles in that regard.
Every society had troublesome children.
If the Ministry tried to hold every young witch or wizard personally responsible whenever accidental magic caused a mess, there would be no end to it.
So over the years, the Ministry had developed an unwritten policy for dealing with situations like this— Ignore them.
There wasn’t much they could do about it anyway.
Besides, most young witches and wizards possessed relatively weak magic.
Even if one deliberately tried to cause trouble, they usually couldn’t do much damage.
Someone like Voldemort, who had been able to use magic freely as a child and deliberately direct his malice towards others, was an extreme exception.
The worst likely consequence of Eric’s actions was that someone from the Ministry or a Hogwarts professor might come and have a word with him.
But as long as Eric insisted that what happened had been accidental, there would be very little they could hold him responsible for.
What else could they do?
Snap his wand?
Eric didn’t even own one yet.
They couldn’t expel him either, because he wasn’t officially a Hogwarts student.
And Hogwarts certainly couldn’t refuse to admit him.
With magical talent like Eric’s, keeping him away from proper magical education would be far more dangerous.
Merlin knew whether doing so might eventually create another Obscurial.
So, realistically speaking, there wasn’t much anyone could do to Eric at all.
In fact, the most likely outcome was that nobody would come looking for him in the first place.
If the Ministry officially stepped forward and tried to hold Eric accountable, it would create an enormous headache for the Ministry itself.
Forget punishment, even deciding what offence to charge him with would probably require half a dozen departments to spend weeks arguing over it.
The disturbance Eric had caused certainly looked spectacular, but in reality, nobody had been injured.
Before releasing his magic, Eric had already used his Mental Field to designate every Monster Book as a target.
The main force of the magical outburst had been directed at those books.
What Tom and everyone else had experienced was merely the aftermath.
Yes.
That overwhelming force had only been the residual shockwave.
The nearby buildings caught in the magical outburst had suffered little more than superficial damage.
The witches and wizards present had repaired most of it easily with Mending Charms.
After only a short while, nothing remained except a few faint marks on some surfaces.
Anyone arriving now would hardly have been able to tell that a major disturbance had just taken place.
And even if someone did want to prosecute Eric over it, there probably wasn’t a single Ministry official eager to take the case.
For any Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, going after someone with Eric’s circumstances would be political suicide.
First, he was a child.
Second, he didn’t even have a wand.
And finally, it had been an accident.
At least, Eric would certainly claim it had been an accident.
From a public-relations standpoint, he was practically untouchable.
If the Ministry genuinely tried to punish him and the matter became public, furious parents would probably flood the Department of Magical Law Enforcement before the day was out.
After all, whose family didn’t have children?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ “I see.
I understand.” After listening obediently while Tom gave him a crash course in the relevant wizarding laws, Eric nodded to show that he understood.
Mercer also nodded at the appropriate moment, confirming that everything Tom had said was true.
As the owner of Flourish and Blotts, Mercer dealt with the Ministry often enough.
He was intimately familiar with its preference for avoiding unnecessary trouble whenever possible.
“So…” Tom raised his eyebrows repeatedly at Eric in a pointed fashion.
“You understand?” Eric smiled.
Then he put on an utterly innocent expression.
“I have absolutely no idea what I did just now.
I merely walked over here, and suddenly everyone except me fell down.” Tom gave a dry laugh.
For a moment, he had an overwhelming urge to smack Eric over the head.
If he had been capable of beating the boy, he might genuinely have done it.
Only after Eric finished speaking did Mercer hurriedly step in.
“I’m terribly sorry, gentlemen.
Please, come inside.
We can continue our conversation properly in the shop.” “And don’t worry.
Naturally, I’ll take full responsibility for what happened.
Any damage to the neighbouring shops will be covered by me as well.” Mercer wasn’t blind.
He had clearly seen what Eric had been doing immediately before that terrifying surge of magic erupted.
Naturally, he didn’t believe Eric’s innocent little performance for a second.
Eric thought for a moment before smiling.
“Mr Mercer, I don’t think there’s any need to trouble yourself.
We’re still in a hurry to finish buying everything I need for school.” “I was only passing by and happened to lend a hand.
I’m sure that even without me, you and your bookshop would have made it through this little difficulty perfectly well.” Eric was telling the truth.
In the original story, Flourish and Blotts had continued operating perfectly well afterward without undergoing any particularly dramatic changes.
If Eric hadn’t appeared, the Monster Books would indeed have caused the shop some losses, but nothing severe enough to cripple the business.
All Eric had really done was accelerate the resolution of the problem.
Presumably, the Flourish and Blotts of the original story had eventually dealt with the Monster Books by some other means.
But knowing that was one thing.
Saying it aloud in this situation was another matter entirely.
Someone had just saved your bookshop, and now he was standing in front of you with a pleasant smile, insisting that he’d merely helped out a little and still had shopping to do.
Could you really just nod and let him walk away?
Eric had no idea how someone else might react, but judging by Mercer’s expression, he was clearly the sort of man who couldn’t bring himself to do that.
Mercer suddenly came to a decision.
“Mr Clapton, whatever else you need, please allow me the opportunity to thank you.” “How about this?
You haven’t bought your school textbooks yet, have you?
Flourish and Blotts will provide the entire set free of charge!
And if there’s anything else you need, just say the word.” With a broad sweep of his hand, Mercer called over an employee who was busy gathering the Monster Books and instructed him to prepare a complete set of first-year textbooks, pack them into a case, and have them ready for Eric to take away.
Eric watched with a smile.
He made no attempt to refuse Mercer’s goodwill.
“Even if you hadn’t offered, Mr Mercer, there’s actually one more book I’d like to buy in addition to my textbooks.” Tom gave Eric a surprised look.
Eric claimed to have been raised by Muggles.
How would he know which spellbooks to ask for?
Eric met his gaze with clear brown eyes, bright and unwavering.
There was a quiet authority in them that made arguing with him strangely difficult.
Tom swallowed.
Wisely, he kept his mouth shut.
“No problem at all,” Mercer said enthusiastically.
“Which book are you looking for?
If we have it in stock, Mr Clapton, you won’t be paying a Knut for it.
Consider it Flourish and Blotts’ way of thanking you.” “The Standard Book of Spells*,*” Eric replied.
“By Miranda Goshawk.” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Hidden_Quill Thank you so much for reading!