Fifteen Day Rule
Harry was sitting with Stevens and Deeks to give their stomachs time to digest the dinner before they started with the cake, when R Benson suddenly frowned.
“Professor?” she raised a hand. “It can’t be Hermione’s birthday.”
“Oh, I assure you, it is,” Tony told her. “I saw her birth certificate. It’s today.”
“But, wait,” she looked down at her fingers as she counted something to herself. “But, then, that means,” she looked back up, “she got her Letter before her eleventh birthday.”
“What are you on about?” Ron frowned from his seat near Susie and G Benson. “Course, she got her Letter on her eleventh birthday. That’s just how it is.”
“Usually,” Tony nodded, “unless you’re an especially bright Muggleborn who not only started manifesting Magic on her tenth birthday, but also started learning to control it not two weeks later. Who showed up at your place, Mi? Dumbledore or McGonagall?”
“What are you talking about?” Harry glanced over at Hermione, expecting similar confusion and bafflement.
“Professor McGonagall,” Hermione’s expression was full of wonder as she stared at Tony. “But how did you –”
“That’s the only explanation for Hermione being one of the youngest students in her year.”
“But that isn’t what we’ve been led to expect,” H Benson shook her head. “Letters are always on someone’s eleventh birthday. Including Muggleborns. Right, AJ?”
The brunette tilted her head in thought. “Well, I’m not sure I would be the best example. Piper’s a Witch, you know. Would that technically mean I’m not actually a Muggleborn? I don’t know my family history at all…”
“In a majority of cases,” Mac broke in, “you’d be right. However, there’s always this very, very small percent of Muggleborns who – even before turning eleven – have a predilection for Magic and that small percentage is why there’s the Fifteen Day Rule.”
“Hey, I’ve heard of that,” Deeks lit up. “That’s the one where any birthday falling within fifteen days of the school’s start date is automatically included in that Year.”
“Exactly!” she grinned.
This was obviously the first time Ron had ever heard of it, though Hermione seemed like she was absorbing new information, too.
“But I’ve never heard of it,” R Benson frowned. “And our family knows a lot.”
“Your family has never had to deal with a so-called ‘Advanced Muggleborn’,” Tony told her.
“There’s an exception to every rule,” Peter sighed. “The idea of ‘Advanced Muggleborns’ is the exception to the ‘Letter on Eleven’ rule, infrequent as the application may be. Mi just so happened to fall into that category.”
“You know,” Hetty thoughtfully pursed her lips, “I never did quite understand the reasoning behind ‘Advanced Muggleborns’. I assume there’s a story?”
“There’s always a story,” Susie confirmed. “But first, you have to understand about the ‘Advanced Muggleborn’ thing and how that relates to the Fifteen Day Rule.”
“Peter, why don’t you explain that one?” Tony looked at his cousin, who nodded.
“The idea of ‘Advanced Muggleborn’ was never really taken seriously even before the Rift between Magic and Muggle. There are records that document young Muggleborns with the aptitude for Magic, but no one really thought much about it other than to wonder why some Muggles had magic and others didn’t. After the Rift, well, you can probably fill that gap in yourselves. No Muggle in their right mind felt comfortable enough to show any abilities they didn’t understand to people who would crucify them before asking questions. It was the perfect environment for a scared kid who needed answers, but didn’t know enough to go to the right person.
“You know that one of the reasons Magic went to ground is that Muggles were taking advantage – most of them, not all – and, well, someone dropped the ball when it came to the Magicals left in the Muggle world with no idea of what to even do with their Magic. Yes, there’s accidental magic, but it always came and went until they got to their eleventh birthday. And, a lot of the time, that’s all it was. Then there was a kid who started manifesting actual Magic when he was around seven or so. Someone close to him thought he needed more ‘religious guidance’ and sent him to this guy who was trying to set himself up as a person of power. He wasn’t doing well with that and the kid was essentially given to him because it was better to dump him on someone else, someone who claimed to know what he was doing.
“As you can imagine, the guy – let’s call him a ‘hack’ and a ‘conman’ – saw someone he could use to gain himself some standing and tricked the poor kid into becoming an ‘apprentice’ of sorts. By the time the kid was nine, he had a pretty good handle on Magic even without schooling and the hack of a mentor he had was steadily gaining power and social standing wherever they went. Three months after his ninth birthday, some high official of a village in France in the early to mid-1600s started becoming suspicious and refused to give into demands. Long story short, the kid was pressured to make some sort of virus or poison and, well, let’s just say that there was an outbreak of Plague,” he grimaced in Tony’s direction.
Harry noticed the Second Years exchanging questioning looks as Hermione did the same, a slightly worrying smile growing on her face as some sort of idea took root.
“Luckily,” Peter went on, “that high official was good friends with a Magical who could do something about it and there was a whole team of Aurors and other officials involved. Someone took the kid into Magical custody and wiped memories from the ones who didn’t need to know what happened. Wary of the incident repeating itself with more catastrophic results, Magical officials all over the world were pressured to find any young Muggle who had Magic, create some sort program to get them into and things would work itself out from there – with continued secrecy guaranteed. It’s not unheard of, even today, for established Magicals to take custody of young Muggleborns away from their Muggle families to ensure that no one took advantage of them and that the secret of the Magical community was kept.”
“That’s horrible,” Hermione frowned.
“Yeah, AJ,” R Benson nodded at her. “Imagine what might’ve happened if you started Manifesting and Piper had to take you from your parents.”
“She kind of is my parent, anyway,” AJ tilted her head. “But would that mean we would have our memories taken if she had?”
The hesitation on the adults’ faces made Harry feel sick, the pleasant dinner turning in his stomach.
“Now, regarding the Fifteen Day Rule,” Stevens hastened to change the subject, “it’s not quite as, well, sad.”
“‘Not quite as sad,’ he says,” Deeks scoffed. “And a poor cow’s reputation ends up ruined.”
“No!” Susie gasped. “The Great Chicago Fire? Oh, that poor animal.”
“Just like Mi,” Tony nodded, “it was a particularly brilliant young girl with a post-school start birthdate. Three days, I think. So, she decided to pretty much teach herself and … well. There was a fire.”
“A big fire,” Stevens added.
“A very big fire,” Palmer nodded.
“Which was nowhere near as bad as the one that hit San Francisco after the earthquake in 1906,” Mac pointed out.
“Are we sure that wasn’t Magic?” Deeks frowned.
“Inconclusive. One of them was natural, it’s just that no one can agree on which it was.”
“But why call it the ‘fifteen day’ rule and not any other number of days?” R wanted to know. “It could just as easily had been the ‘twenty day’ rule.”
“No, it wouldn’t have,” Tony’s expression darkened as the others simply looked away.
The clink of a tea cup on a saucer broke the growing silence and Harry looked to see Hetty smile wanly at him.
“It’s not something a lot of American Magicals like to talk about,” she explained. “Well, those who have the wherewithal to know the details. I’m not yet certain if other Agencies teach their recruits about it, but I would gather that doing your own research would answer most of your questions.”
Because it didn’t look like anyone here would be saying anything about it.
“Cake!” H Benson suddenly shouted, making Harry jump. “Sorry,” she said quieter. “I want that cake now.”
“Sound idea,” Tony’s smile was suddenly back and the atmosphere lightened. “I hope you guys like this cake.”
“Oh, I’ll help,” Mac immediately got up and followed him to the kitchen area.
“No way,” Stevens went after her. “I don’t trust you with cake!”
Harry looked around and met Ron and Hermione’s gazes.
He was curious – they all were -, but it didn’t seem like something they needed to ask right now.
Anyway, they would probably be finding out in due time one day.
Besides, it probably wasn’t as bad as Tony and the others were making it out to be…
Right?
* **