The rest of the day practically went by in a blur. I swept the building one more time, making sure I didn't leave anything that could lead to me—not that it would be very useful to the police, as I have the best alibi ever, of being four—or anything that I might find useful.

  Next, I undid the transfiguration on the metal door that led to the captive women and got rid of their chains so that if they woke up, they could leave on their own. At the end, right before I left, I used one of the guns to shoot a lot of bullets—and I mean a lot. It was strangely fun.

  Afterwards, I used a pay phone to call 999, reporting gunshots in the area.

  Nothing special happened while going home, but when I was about to get in through my window, I heard voices.

  "Where could she be?" I heard a worried Liz say. Now I was feeling kind of guilty. I mean, I had spent weeks acclimating them to my disappearing episodes, but anyone would be worried if the four-year-old they were responsible for went missing for a couple of hours. I remember how they had even called the cops the first three times.

  "Don't worry," I heard Mrs. Gray say. Huh, she's back sooner than I expected.

  "She's a child, but I've seen her behave sometimes even more maturely than you. I don't like it when my children are too mature—it makes me wonder if it's my fault, that I didn't give them the childhood they deserved. Thankfully for Morgan, her maturity seems to come from her intelligence. I'm not happy that it has taken this shape, but I'm happy that for the first time she's being childish and unruly."

  I smiled to myself as I hid beneath the open window ledge. 'Mrs. Gray is really as awesome as I had thought she was.'

  "I just can't help worrying, you know? Heh, I just remembered, once around a month ago," Liz started telling a story.

  'Oh no.' I ran to the window of the next room, my steps hidden by the newly falling rain. I jumped into the empty bedroom, changed my clothes to my original attire, then ran out the door and towards my own.

  "In the park, there was this little girl," Liz continued, but before she could get any further, I opened the door.

  "Liz!" I half-yelled, making sure to interrupt her. "I'm hungry. Are there any leftovers? Oh hi, Mrs. Gray," I added, waving at her.

  "Oh my god, where were you!? I was worried sick, you know?" Liz yelled while hugging me.

  I tried to downplay the whole thing, but they didn't listen to any excuses.

  In the end, even if Mrs. Gray had said she was happy I was acting childish, she still played the adult in chastising me for my wrongdoings along with Liz. IT. TOOK. FOREVER.

  Somewhere towards the middle, I was tempted to just use magic to make them care about this less, but in the end... I didn't.

  I didn't want to just manipulate the minds of those I cared about, or those that cared about me—especially when they reached the part stressing I never leave the house unsupervised, that I might get kidnapped. Considering I did get kidnapped, I felt I deserved their berating in the end.

  Later that night, while Alice was sleeping on the other bed, I was awake, thinking about my day.

  I was happy that I had found the gold—it meant that I could go to Diagon Alley as soon as tomorrow. But on the other hand... I had killed people. Worse, I had tortured people.

  Granted, they were scum who totally deserved everything I had done to them, but that doesn't exactly diminish what I'd done.

  All things considered, I knew that involving myself with magic and the wizarding world would eventually lead me to a time when I'd have to kill.

  I mean, what else would you have expected from a world in which school children as young as eleven have mandatory self-defense classes as a core part of their curriculum? I just didn't think it would be so soon.

  After some more staring at the ceiling, I eventually turned in for the night.

  The next day, after Alice had already left for school, I sneaked out again. Despite the rare sunny morning, there was no one outside, which at first I thought was weird, but then I remembered—today is Tuesday. This being a mainly residential neighborhood meant everyone was either out to work or school.

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  I hadn't actively thought about that before, but I guess that's why Liz isn't here every day despite the quite generous wage Mrs. Gray gives. She has university to attend.

  I had secretly followed Alice twice last week, just to see how she would go to school. She usually went near the bus stop well before the mundane bus arrived. She then brought out her wand—which was weird since I thought children weren't allowed to use magic in mundane places before graduation—and released a sort of wave into the Mana-field.

  At first, I thought it was a charm or a spell that worked without the mana current component, but after following her a second time, I realized she's just releasing magical energy haphazardly, which I think works like a signal. In the movies, the bus arrived by simply sticking out your wand arm, but I guess they changed it later, or maybe it was never like that here.

  After I made it to a different bus stop in another part of the city, I noticed other people in the street. There weren't many, and I wasn't worried regardless. I stuck out a piece of wood I had transfigured to look like a wand. No one looked my way due to my perception filter. I released a wave into the Mana-field through my "wand" like I had seen Alice do, and not even moments later, I felt a subtle vibration in the Mana-field. It was subtle in that the vibrations were small, but I was awed by their complexity and vastness. They were vast—so big that the waves looked like the entirety of the Mana-field was vibrating.

  The subtlety, however, was like a difference in temperature. It was like the previously ice-cold Mana-field was now just above freezing.

  The entire experience lasted only a few seconds until a black bus appeared in front of me. With its appearance, the vibrations subtly changed, coming into focus. It was like putting your finger in the water and watching the waves go to your finger instead of away from it.

  'So that's how it works.' I'd always been too far away to see, but now I could. The vibrations were like a similar effect to my perception filter—but better. 'Thankfully I don't much care about copyright since I'm stealing this design. It's much more sophisticated than my shoving-it-to-the-back-of-their-mind approach.'

  After looking at the whole thing for a few seconds, I walked into the bus. It was thankfully empty aside from the driver.

  "Miss, aren't you a little too young to be waving around a wand? Where are your papa or mama?" the driver asked.

  I looked at him with an annoyed expression. "This is obviously a potions accident. I'm heading to buy the supplies to fix it."

  "Oh, sorry ma'am for my earlier words. So to Diagon Alley, I assume?" he said, no longer in an annoying baby voice.

  I snorted before sitting. I sometimes forget I still look like a four-year-old, since almost no one in the house treats me as such.

  "Yes, to Diagon Alley. It's just that I don't have any Knuts or Sickles, so—"

  Before I could finish, the bus started moving, the insane acceleration throwing me to the back of my seat. Seconds later, we stopped in front of a rather big medieval-style building.

  "Oh, don't worry ma'am, you can pay with muggle currencies too. It'll be three Pounds."

  Oh? I can't say I wasn't surprised. I had planned on just paying him in gold nuggets, but this is way better. I wanted to ask how they made sure the currency wasn't fake, but if it's common knowledge, I don't want to appear suspicious.

  I paid him and got off the bus. Every other person was ignoring the medieval-themed but cozy-looking café like it was a tree in the forest. Or more like the empty space between trees.

  There was a sign at the side of the door, with a golden cauldron drawn on it and reading "The Golden Cauldron" under it. 'Another change from the movies,' I thought before entering.

  The inside was a cozy café with several tables and chairs and even sofas on the other side. It wasn't exactly full, but there were customers, and all of them turned to look at me the moment I walked in.

  I ignored their stares, walking confidently to the back entrance that had a sign with "Diagon Alley" next to it. My perception filter—as crude as I had come to realize it was—didn't work nearly as well on wizards as it did on mundanes. All I could do was barely make them ignore that I was a child.

  In the end, I managed to get out the back without having anyone interrupt me, which I was thankful for.

  The backyard was not what I was expecting—which was a trash dump—but rather a fairy tale-esque garden full of giant trees. Despite the winter, it looked mid-spring here, with green-leafed trees sporting colorful blooms, and purple and pink flowers on the grassy ground.

  A dirt road was extending from where I was to a brick wall in the middle of two trees like a portal that was currently closed.

  Getting closer to the wall, I could feel the magic in it. It felt familiar—even more so than the telepathy I had wielded for the past month.

  It gave me a sense of déjà vu, which I had thought was impossible due to my perfect memory.

  Putting my hand on the wall, I noticed a specific brick that was glowing with magic. To me, it felt like a knot that would unravel—that wanted to unravel but needed someone to pull the thread. So I did. I pulled the metaphorical magic thread, watching the wall open up one brick at a time to show what was behind.

  As I watched this at full attention, making sure to record any and all detail for later study, I realized where the sense of déjà vu was coming from. This charm was like a stitch on the fabric of space, folding a section under itself to keep it hidden.

  This nonsensical manipulation of space that I had sensed struck an unconscious chord of both familiarity—from my years of research in trying to create an FTL (faster-than-light) drive—and now, of jealousy, over how easy it seems for wizards of this world to manipulate it, when humanity in mine still couldn't do it after centuries.

  We were close—or rather I was. I'm not sure how much of my data survived the explosion, but even that would be a crude handling of space compared to this, however nonsensical it seems.

  Looking at the magical seams opening up to reveal a space hidden from the mundane for who knows how many years, I was even more excited for all the things I could learn in here.

  And without further ado, I took my first real step into the magical society.