Later the same day, I was observing the other children from a balcony as I thought about my future. Honestly living here is awesome, all everyone is good natured, Mrs. Gray actually cares about us children, it's honestly quite weird how good we have it here considering almost all stories or movies about these circumstances have the guardian abuse, or take advantage of the kids.

  Considering all that however, I still need to leave. I need a place to grow and practice my magic without being found out, and this isn't it, specially keeping in mind Alice is also a witch, meaning not only could she herself find me out, and she's not known for being able to keep a secret, but if other wizards come to visit her they might sense me too.

  The other thing I have to keep in mind is the crisis that caused the return of Arthur, and I think I know what it is. It is currently February of 2005, in another two or three years, Apple will premiere the first ever commercial use touchscreen smartphone, starting the age of information and social media, by around 2030 or sooner the tensions between countries will spark an information war, later creating many scandals in which governments had used smartphones as spying devises with the spyware pre installed on all devices sold after 2027.

  Now comes the problem, there is a very high likelihood that the different governments will stumble upon wizards in their bid for information.

  When I was a child I once saw a video from a guy talking about weird things that happened on earth or anywhere else in the solar system for that matter, that many people were attributing to magic or aliens. At that time he said something that stayed with me close to the top of my mind, he said, "We shouldn't just attribute all weird things to magic or aliens, because they are universal answers. Why are there fossils where they have no business being? Because magic. Why are there circles drawn in the crops? Because aliens. A universal answer suffocates our need for research and reason, which is why we should avoid it if at all possible."

  The problem is now visible, with the discovery of wizards specially in the powder keg that is the twenty-thirties, comes the non zero probability that any problem is caused by magic, put that next to the fear of the unknown and the mundanes finding out even wizard children can mess with memories using 'Obliviate' or similar charms, and you'll have public enemy number one.

  There will be a war, and wizards will lose that war. It's not a question of ability, or how powerful magic or mundane weapons are, it's just that there are simply too many mundane humans.

  Of course wizards could win, quite easily infact, if they become united and use everything in their arsenal, but that won't happen. There will be factions that get in each other's way, and the greedy, who want to benefit from the circumstances, and the idealists, who want to find a better way.

  But the real reason wizards will lose, are the wizards that will side with the mundane humans, wether it be threat of their mundane families or the racism and bigotry in the wizarding world or even just riches and authority promised by mundane governments.

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  Well, thankfully that's all speculation, I don't know nearly enough about the wizarding world of the twenty-first century to say anything with certainty, besides Arthur has a sword that according to Morgana, bends luck and fate to make sure it's wielder, or at least his side would win any battle or war that they participate in, so who knows really, a singular freak accident could be enough to win the wizards the war.

  Putting world war three to the back of my mind, I looked at one of the kids who was going to trip another one, I focused on his emotions. As one might expect from children, his emotions were all over the place, but right now the one that shined most brightly was mischief.

  Suddenly I had a thought, it wasn't something I liked doing even if I want even sure it would work, but whether it was curiosity or my own need for finding a way out of here without raising suspicion, I had enough reason to give it a try.

  I focused on some of his more muted emotions, he wasn't a bad kid and I could feel the proof. Guilt, he hadn't even pranked anyone, yet he was feeling guilty already, granted it was incredibly muted, but that it was even there specially for a child, it was impressive.

  I focused on that guilt that he felt, and I don't know how exactly I did it but I fed it, grew it, more and more, until it was almost as big as the mischief. It didn't take long to notice the result, his smile vanished, he took a step back, for a moment it looked like he even wanted to apologize but I think he remembered, he hadn't done anything yet, that moment was also when his guilt suddenly shrank almost disappearing, I tried feeding it again but it wouldn't work no matter how much I tried.

  "Hah." I sighed. However much distaste I might feel for any sort of mind control or manipulation, Mrs. Gray is too sharp to easily fool, magic is my best bet if I want independence any time soon.

  Later still that same day, it was near sunset when Alice and Mrs. Gray came back from their outing to what I hope was Diagon alley, I already have a plan on getting myself there but that only works if the name is the same, since I don't actually know the address to Leaky Cauldron this is my only way too, but first things first, I need money.

  Alice chipper as always was already engaged in conversations, with several other children, she was never one to keep a secret, though if you think about it she doesn't really need to.

  Any child young enough to believe in magic will believe anything you tell them, but anyone else would just think you're doing it for the younger ones, like when you pretend Santa is real, even if she was to tell exactly what happened today, nothing would happen, not that she would, the wisdom of knowing that telling the truth in this case would probably hide it better than lying, specially considering she can't lie very well, isn't something I would associate with Alice, so she's probably doing her best to hide it, but again it doesn't matter, the younger ones can't tell the difference, and the older ones would just dismiss it as the antics of children.

  After a while Alice came up the stairs, and instantly started hugging me from behind, "Ah, Morgan I missed you." She said burying hey face in my hair. "Hey, let go!" I said loudly while trying to push her off me, but honestly? I was too small, after a few seconds I gave up. "What's with you? You were never this touchy feely." I let her sit me on her lap, she herself wasn't that big compared to her age so it definitely wasn't a comfortable fit.

  "I don't know." She said her voice muffled by my hair, "I had a really weird day, I just- I guess I just wanted a hug." Looking over my shoulder I asked, "So? Have you had enough?" I made sure I made my displeasure known in my voice though I'm not sure if Alice picked it up.

  "Yeah." She said finally releasing me after which I immediately jumped down to the floor, looking back it her I asked another question, "Was it good weird or bad weird?" Alice now looking me in the eyes smiled brightly, "Oh it was definitely good weird, it was, you could even say, magical."