Chapter five – Investigations

The rest of the vacations went on quite calmly, actually.

There were no new movements against Muggles and Muggle-borns. Not that they have published, at least. In fact, what happened on Diagon Alley and at the Dursleys' wasn't brought to public attention. Certainly the minister had prohibited the journalists to promote the cases. But Lily wasn't complaining.

One of these days, the Daily Prophet came up with a catchy headline: Preservation of magical security.

It finally revealed the new law about the relationship with Muggles, as the wizards from the Ministry had told us days before, at the Dursleys'.

Informed exclusively by minister Potts, The Daily Prophet comes up with the newest law, as promised to our avid readers. The referred law is about the unacceptable relationship some witches and wizards have with our popular called Muggles. Some of us have this hideous habit to think Muggles are harmless and very similar to us, people with magical blood. Minister Potts believes this has to end. It put us in danger, since Muggles don't seem to accept well our magical abilities and tend to treat us in a unfriendly way, which is an insult to our power and superiority. For this law was created a new department at the Ministry of Magic, which is called Muggle-wizard Relationship Control. The law states that: Any wizard or witch who makes contact with a Muggle, which is now considered Magical Criminal Atrocity Class B, will receive a warning. If it happens for a second time, the person will be arrested or led to a hearing if under the age of seventeen.
The minister agrees that there are times we can't avoid contacting with Muggles. Some of us live in Muggle villages, and to go to Diagon Alley and Platform 9 and ¾ we must pass by non-magical people. So, places like the center of London, King's Cross Station or not entirely magical villages will be excluded from this rule. However, if the employees from Muggle-wizard Relationship Control believe the contact made was unnecessary, the witch or wizard can indeed be sent to Azkaban.
The Daily Prophet intensively supports all the decisions made by minister Potts, and believes that all he decides is for the greater good.

Of course the newspaper supported the cause. The Daily Prophet was easily manipulated by the Ministry of Magic. The newspaper used to smear Harry and Albus Dumbledore – the professor who Lily's brother was named after – when Voldemort returned, because the minister at the time, Cornelius Fudge, told the paper to do so.

Indeed, it was very difficult not to contact with Muggles, since Godric's Hollow had a fair amount of them.Lily's visits to her grandparents' statue were now suspended, and, for being underage, she couldn't walk through the village. They couldn't take any risks.

The neighbors, the Thomas, were stuck at home too. Dean Thomas, friend of Harry and Ginny, didn't know if he was half-blood or Muggle-born, because he never met his father. He couldn't prove his heritage. So he was with the same problem as Aunt Hermione. Mr Thomas, too, worked at the Ministry.

Mr Thomas' daughter, Emmeline, with whom Lily shared a dormitory at Hogwarts, was very worried about her father. She often appeared at the Potters' place to ask Lily to help her, and she started to invite Hugo every time Em came by. He helped her a lot, since he knew exactly what she was going through.

Those were, with no doubts, the worst vacations Lily had ever had. Ginny, Harry and James were always out, doing secret business, leaving her alone with Albus. She didn't know what they were doing, but she was sure they were together. And she had the feeling that Albus didn't know everything, but he had a vague idea about what was going on. He refused to tell Lily anything, though.

Since she had to stay at home all day long, Lily was corresponding with Hugo, Roxy and Lucy by letter (and Emmeline by window), and they told her what she expected: that their parents were, too, out every day. Except for Aunt Hermione and Mr Thomas, they went out by sunrise and came back late at night. If they were doing that, Lily was sure the rest of her family, including Teddy, was doing the same. She was very curious to know what they were doing, but she was sure no one would tell any of the kids.

But Lily was doing her own research. She found a way to contact Uncle George and asked him to do her a little favor: if he would take her to work with him for a day. He accepted right away, of course. Although working at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had been Lily's dream when she was a kid, she had other intentions this time.

She was interested on books, very specific books, about when Voldemort took power. Not that she thought he could go back, but she was wondering what witches and wizards who were against him did when he was controlling the Ministry.

At Diagon Alley, where was located Uncle George's shop, were three types of magical bookstores. Lily was hoping to find any information that she needed to find out what her family was up to. It was worth trying, anyway.

Lily almost couldn't find an opportunity to escape from George's eyes. It was almost like he knew she was up to something. He kept an eye on the costumers and an eye on Lily all the time, which was pretty annoying. So she had to use Plan B.

Right after lunch, arrived at the store lots of boxes of new products Uncle George had ordered. It was the perfect opportunity. He muttered about how he could manage to take care of the store and to organize the boxes.

"Uncle George," Lily called.

He almost dropped everything he was carrying. "Blimey, Lily, what's the matter?"

"I was wondering if I could help you with these."

"No way, they are too heavy for you," said uncle, trying to balance the boxes, which were pending to the left. "Harry and Ginny would kill me if they found out I made you carry weight. They would never allow you to come back here again."

"Then let me organize the merch," she suggested. "I haven't done anything useful all day, and you're too busy with the costumers to worry about the boxes."

He looked at her, suspicious, but in the end he gave up. "All right. I'll explain what you have to do."

She followed him to the back of the store. There was where he kept the boxes and new products which weren't available for sale yet. Then he started to put the boxes on the ground. He was doing fine, until…

"Damn!" he shouted, and all the boxes fell with a really loud noise.

Lily controlled herself not to laugh. "Do you want help?"

"No, no, I'm fine," he said, almost sharply. "Ah, for Merlin's sake, I hope nothing is broken." Uncle inspected the content of the boxes carefully and then turned to Lily. "You see, my niece, this material is top secret, because we will only release it next month, and I don't want any competitor to steal the idea. Not that I suspect you or anything. I'm just saying you have to work in silence."

"Got it," Lily said.

George grabbed one of the boxes. "All you have to do is separate the objects on the boxes, where they are mixed." He pointed to an empty shelf "Here you will put the torn off pieces." He pointed to another shelf. "Herewill be the partially finished products." He pointed to the last shelf. "And here, you have to put the products themselves. It's not complicated, is it?"

"Not at all," Lily assured. "I promise I'll do my best."

"I will be at the front if you need me." With a wink, he left the room.

Lily waited a few moments to certificate he was gone and pulled out of her backpack the Invisibility Cloak. She put it on and went to the front of the store.

"Thanks, James," Lily muttered.

It wasn't easy to walk through the store without hitting someone or something. When she finally reached the door, Lily waited until someone entered, passed through the open door and, as soon as she was far enough from the store, she went to a corner and took off the cloak.

Hoping not to find anyone from school, Lily walked through Diagon Alley. She carefully tried to avoid looking at everyone, mostly because she wasn't supposed to leave George's shop. And she was easily recognized.

Lily was conscious that it was very likely she wouldn't find what she was looking for. The options in bookstores were fewer than in old libraries. But she had to try.

Her obvious first stop was Flourish and Botts, the traditional bookstore where she always bought her schoolbooks. She couldn't take long, or George would see she was gone, so she went directly to the old man on the register and asked him, "Do you have any books from 1995 or something around that?"

"You're unlucky, dear," said the old man kindly. "My stock from before 1998 was destroyed."

"Thank you anyway," she said, disappointed.

It's okay, Lily said to herself when she was back to the streets. There are two more stores where I can find something.'

But unfortunately, neither Obsucurus Books nor Whizz Hard Books seemed to have any copy of such old books.

When she was back at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, already wearing the Invisibility Cloak, not too much time after she left, Lily thought her plan had been a success. She moved furtively to the back of the store and she was intending to finally start to do what she had told George she was going to do. Until she found him waiting for her there.

Lily had just taken off the cloak when she saw him sitting on one of the boxes, playing with a toy of a witch called Umbridge. Lily froze.

George raised his eyebrows at her. "Lily Luna Potter, what the devil were you doing?"

"I… I was just…"

"Did you genuinely think I wasn't going to come to check if you were really here? I know my relatives, Lily. It's in your blood."

Lily sighed. "Uncle, I'm sorry. I swear I was going to organize the boxes later…"

He put the toy over the shelf, which were empty except for it. "I'm not mad at you, niece. I'm quite proud of you."

Surely she had misheard him. "Proud of me?" Lily repeated. "But, uncle, I left without your permission."

"I used to do this all the time!" he said cheerfully "That's why I have a joke shop, you see."

Lily was relieved. She sat beside him.

George smiled happily. "Now, tell me. What were you doing that no one could know?"

Lily's expression turned serious at once.

"Don't worry," Georde said encouragingly "I won't tell anybody, I swear."

"I can't," Lily said. "You'll probably say this is none of my business, that I shouldn't be doing it."

"Come on, love, I'm your uncle George. When will I tell you not to do something?"

She was pretty sure even George would tell her to stop being nosy. If anyone would want her to know what was going on they would've said it, it was pretty obvious. But Lily told him what she was doing anyway.

As expected, he seemed upset. "Lily, you have to promise me you won't do it again." His voice sounded really serious for Uncle George. "If don't, I'll let Harry and Ginny know what you are doing with the Cloak of Invisibility."

"No!" Lily shouted desperately. "Okay, okay, I'll do my best to keep away. Happy?"

He sighed. "Guess it's the best I will get."

Lily was really sad. Even Uncle George, the world's biggest joker, was telling her to stop looking for answers. Wouldn't it be simpler if they told her what was going on, instead of expecting her not to notice?

George realized what she was thinking, so he passed his arm over her shoulders. "It hurts me more than you, believe me. I love trouble. But from this kind of trouble, dear, you want distance."

Lily nodded, extremely unhappy.

George stood up. "But relax. I'll keep my promise. I won't tell anybody what happened here today. But… Think about what I said, okay?"

When he finally left, Lily started to organize the shelves. Although Uncle George had the best intentions, both he and Lily knew she wasn't going to give up so quickly. She couldn't handle being on the dark. She wouldn't lose her hopes, until she checked the largest bookstore she knew. Which was located in a place Lily would visit in a few weeks.