Unlike a Sister (Harmione)

Chapter 38: Without

Her absence was a crater and he learned to live on the edges of it.

Hand over hand, he moved slowly, carefully. Sometimes he'd almost feel like he'd found his footing-like pulling himself onto an outcropping-only to drop several feet when it gave way, his fingers scrabbling for anything to slow his fall into a great and weighty darkness.

But all objects surrender to gravity. It is only a matter of timing. And from the moment she had kissed his fingers, he had known he would never reach the surface. The light would always grow farther away. She would not come back to find him.

He had not been worth it, after all.

The thoughts from his youth-the ceiling beams and the knife-did not return. But work, once again, became everything. It was his only real distraction after Lily left, after Clymene Court grew quiet and still, its many rooms shut.

But, even then, he could not really escape her.

That October, the Auror Department and Improper Use of Magic Office released their first report on wizard-on-Muggle crime, as mandated by the Granger Amendment to the 2008 Muggle Protection Act.

The findings were explosive.

The IUMO calculated that roughly 63 billion pounds had been stolen from the British Muggle economy through magically-assisted theft over the last ten years. Most crimes were petty in nature-nicking purses and wallets or confounding Muggles to get free food or clothes or petrol. But approximately forty violent robberies occurred each year and many stories were sickening: pensioners swindled out of their life savings with Befuddlement Draughts, families evicted from generational homes via Confundus Charms. The full impact could never be known, but the report noted that most witches and wizards lived in homes built by and purloined from Muggles. Harry remembered his own home was no exception, though it had happened centuries ago.

The Auror Department was responsible for detailing the more serious crimes in the report. Two hundred and eighteen Muggles had been murdered by wizards in the last ten years. Assisted by Polyjuice or "love" potions, the sexual assault rate was also alarmingly higher than within the magical community.

Within days, the report leaked to several witting officials at the Muggle Ministry of Justice, which had long participated in intergovernmental consultations with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. In response to their complaints, and with the backing of the Muggle-born caucus of the Wizengamot, Minister Shacklebolt stood up a taskforce to review the report's findings and determine what compensation or reparations could be made to the affected Muggle families. To preserve the Statute, the Ministry of Justice begrudgingly suggested a lottery or sweepstakes that they could quietly administer.

The Wizengamot committee that oversaw wizard-Muggle relations also called on the Auror Chief to testify. Harry listened while the members berated him-demanding to know why the Auror Department had not identified these trends sooner, why more hadn't been done to deter such crimes.

When he was allowed to speak, Harry said what he felt was true.

"Crimes against the non-magical population have never been a priority, and that is my fault," he said while the Quick-Quotes Quills trembled in the press box. "The Auror Department-like the entire Ministry-has long prioritized the protection of the Statute over the protection of people. Until this report, I could tell you the incidence of underage magic in nearly every major city. I could tell you about cockatrice fighting rings or unlicensed jinx developers. But if you asked me what violence our world visits upon those not like us, I could not tell you. Because no one ever asked me and I lacked the curiosity and the compassion to ask myself."

His answer was met with a pulsating sort of silence. Finally, the recently appointed chairwoman-a Muggle-born representing Leeds-asked him:

"So, what do you recommend?"