54 Chapter 54: Farewell, Traces, and Wall Street
Today is the last day of staying at Hogwarts, and students going home will take the Hogwarts Express tomorrow to return to London's King's Cross Station.
When Alaric arrived at the Great Hall, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were busy decorating for Christmas. He saw Hagrid carrying a large fir tree into the hall, the needles scattered everywhere.
"Ah, Hagrid, the last tree is brought in too—put it in the corner over there, alright?" Professor McGonagall casually said.
The Great Hall looked beautiful and spectacular. Holly and mistletoe formed hanging ribbons on the walls, and there were twelve towering Christmas trees throughout the room. Some trees had sparkling icicles, while others flickered with hundreds of candles.
Unfortunately, none of this concerned him. Although he personally looked forward to staying at Hogwarts during the holidays, participating in the Christmas party, and savoring the unique cuisine of Christmas—Hogwarts food has always been both plentiful and delicious, far surpassing the unbearable local cuisine of British Muggles.
But he had his own money-making plan.
Leaving Hogwarts on class days was quite troublesome, requiring a long journey—Hogwarts couldn't use Apparition—avoiding the surveillance of portraits, statues, ghosts, professors, and Forbidden Forest creatures.
Moreover, he had to return before the next morning, which was completely making things difficult.
So, the Christmas holiday was his only chance.
He had missed opportunities in the past few years, such as shorting the yen during the Plaza Accord, shorting oil during the Gulf War at the beginning of the year.
Next year, Soros's shorting of the pound after September was too late, so he had to seize major events like the fall of the Soviet Union.
On this day, he took the Hogwarts Express early in the morning, embarking on the journey back to London.
His three female friends, Hermione, Cho Chang, and Penelope, did not stay at the school during the holiday. So, at King's Cross Station, he bid farewell to the three of them with hugs.
"Don't forget to write to us," Penelope said reluctantly. "I know you don't have an owl, but I'll write to you, and there will be a Christmas present for you."
"Of course, I'll remember," Alaric smiled and nodded, feeling a bit warm inside.
Finally, each of the three girls gave him a kiss on cheeks when no one was paying attention.
Alaric was touched and somewhat helpless. Inside, there was a bit of excitement and resignation.
It seems that he is destined to be a man with deep sins, but who cares.
...
After bidding farewell to them, Alaric was ready to get down to business.
For this operation, he had made adequate preparations: a large amount of Petrifying Potion, the antidote to Petrification Potion, and a whole crucible of semi-finished Polyjuice Potion—some time ago, he and Orianna sneaked into Snape's private storage room, stole the ingredients, and then brewed these potions in the Room of Requirement.
Originally, Petrifying Potion was entirely unnecessary, considering the existence of the Petrification Curse.
However, Alaric considered his magical power not strong enough, and his mastery of the Petrification Curse not deep enough.
Therefore, the duration of the Petrification Curse was not long-lasting, so he had to use potions to substitute for the curse's effects.
These items were all enchanted with a shrinking spell and concealed in the pockets of his cloak.
After leaving King's Cross Station, he didn't immediately return to Wool's Orphanage but went directly to London Airport.
Using the Concealment and Disillusionment Charms, he blended in and boarded a plane bound for New York, USA.
Of course, due to the presence of Traces, underage wizards using magic outside of school would be detected by the Ministry of Magic. The young wizard who used magic would receive a warning letter from the Ministry. In severe cases, Aurors might even show up at their door.
However, Traces were not flawless.
According to Alaric's analysis, Trace could not determine which specific young wizard used magic. Its principle was to sense the location of the magic being used.
When young wizards lived in Muggle families, the positions of the young wizards were quite dispersed, and their parents were non-magical. So, the Ministry could easily determine the identity of the violator by the addresses of the young wizards' families.
When underage wizards who violated magic use were in wizarding families, it wasn't as easy to determine their identity through Traces. However, it didn't matter because wizarding laws stipulated that for underage wizards in such families, their use of magic would be supervised by their parents.
Alaric was able to draw this conclusion because of the situation in the first semester of summer vacation in the original book: Dobby used magic, but the Ministry wrongly thought it was Harry who used magic and sent him warning letters.
This proved that the Ministry could only confirm the location and not the user.
And now, Alaric was well-prepared.
He chose to board a plane that was about to depart, so when the Aurors arrived at the airport using Apparition, the plane had already taken off, and Alaric had left the scene long ago.
The Aurors looked around the airport in confusion, but gained nothing. Some nearby Muggles were startled by their sudden appearance—no one would have expected an underage wizard to dare use magic in broad daylight.
In the events they usually handled, young wizards often quietly cast spells in hidden places to avoid being seen as freaks. When Aurors appeared directly at the scene through Apparition, they could apprehend the culprit on the spot.
But this time, they encountered an unexpected situation.
Some Muggles thought they were experiencing hallucinations, some Muggles ran away in fear, and some Muggles excitedly approached to ask questions.
If smartphones existed in this era, pictures and videos of the Aurors would have already circulated on social media, attracting the attention of Muggle netizens.
Next, there was widespread use of Memory Charm to erase the incident. The Minister of Magic would probably inform the British Prime Minister to cooperate in controlling public opinion—after all, the incident occurred in the airport waiting area, which had a large flow of people.
Witnesses might have left by plane, and if the incident wasn't properly handled, the mystery might become a famous unsolved case in the world.
As for Alaric, he didn't know the trouble his actions had brought to the Ministry and the British government. At this moment, he was on his way to New York.
At present, he could be considered free to act as he wished because Traces only worked within the boundaries of Britain. Once he left the country, he could use magic freely, and the British Ministry of Magic had no jurisdiction over him.
As for the magical authorities of other countries— at least, Traces' information was not internationally shared.
The flight lasted eight hours, and by the time the plane arrived in New York, it was already dusk. However, Alaric didn't immediately deal with finding accommodation or solving dinner and such trivial matters—he was running out of time.
The feast of the Soviet Union's fall was about to begin, and most people had already entered the arena. He had to make the most of his time.
Firstly, the first step was to solve the identity issue. Of course, he couldn't do this using his own identity because he was too young and lacked the funds. Even if he was to use some new plans, there was no starting point.
His solution was to find someone with enough status to carry out his plan. This person must be involved in financial work, possess enough reputation and property, and currently be single or living alone.
This didn't mean Alaric wanted to plunder someone else's property. He wasn't so lacking in morals.
He believed that using magic to rob Muggles lacked both technical content and was inconsistent with his identity—what kind of future Dark Lord would rob ordinary people?
The reason he wanted to choose such a person was that he needed a loan—using a loan to generate income was his best option.
As for being single and living alone, it was even simpler: he only needed to use magic to deal with the target.
Simultaneously, dealing with the target's family and forging their memories would be a big hassle. Group illusions were something few would believe.
So, the best place to find such a financially involved, single, and reputable person was the Wall Street in New York.
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