Chapter 5
Two days later Dumbledore was ready to go and retrieve Harry. While trying to puzzle out why he would be in America of all places, Albus remembered that Lily’s family was from there and had moved back a little before Harry was born. So, assuming that Harry was somehow with them, the plan was for him and Minerva to apparate there, explain everything to the family gently, and convince them to send Harry to Hogwarts for his fourth year.
Accounting for the time difference, they went when it would be mid afternoon in California, Danville. They apperated just a block down the road from the Murphy residence, careful to make sure they weren’t seen, and started the walk there.
They were soon at the door and knocked. It was a few seconds before it was opened by an adult woman, she was tall and pretty, with very short light orange hair and casual muggle clothes.
“Um, hello,” She said, “Can I help you?”
“I take it that this is the Murphy residence?” Dumbledore asked politely.
She nodded, and frowned, “Oh, dear, did Martin or Milo break something of yours? I’ll give you our insurance number.”
He wasn’t sure why he would need a number for insurance? Insurance of what? Or who Martin or Milo were, but he corrected her with a small grandfatherly laugh, “No, we’re here to talk to you about your nephew, Harry.”
She looked at them, confused for a moment, before recognition filled her gaze. The frown on her face didn’t leave, however, and seemed to only deepen.
“May I ask your names?” She said and the two old wizards took to introducing themselves.
“I’m Minerva McGonagall, it’s a pleasure,” the two women shook hands.
“And I’m Albus Dumbledore.” His eye’s twinkled, “The Headmaster of Hogwarts, school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”
The woman’s eyes widened, “Oh, your wizards! That explains the odd outfits. No offense.”
“Non taken,” He chuckled.
“Anyway, I’m Brigette Murphy,” She finally introduced herself, “Come on in.”
She led them through the house, which was a regular muggle house by most standards, but quite plain. There were hardly any pictures or decorations, but it still definitely looked lived in. Too lived in, perhaps, considering there were scorch marks on some of the walls and flooring, a broken table sweep to the side, and some clutter there and here. They got to the dining room/kitchen and they stood around the counter.
“So,” Brigette started, “You’re here to talk about...Harry.”
He didn’t miss how she hesitated on the boy’s name. How odd.
Minerva spoke, “Yes, well, it seems there was a problem when it came to delivering his Hogwarts letter on time, four years late, in fact. We’re here to fix that and offer him a spot at Hogwarts, where he will, of course, receive the best education a young wizard can get.”
Both professors were anxious to ask how Harry had gotten to America in the first place, but that could wait.
It was silent for a while, a thoughtful look on Brigette’s face. Then she said, “Well, we should discuss this with the whole family I think. Martin should be home soon, if nothing comes up. I’ll call the children and tell them to come home. They’re with friends right now.”
“How many children do you have, Mrs. Murphy?” Minerva asked politely.
“Oh, just two,” She said, grabbing one of those cellular muggle devices, “That’s counting Harry, of course. Him and Sara. If you could excuse me for a moment, thanks,” Then she stepped into the next room to make her calls or so he supposed.
“Well, she was very nice,” his companion observed, “But why did she think her family had broken something of ours?”
“I’m not sure,” Dumbledore said back, “But, nonetheless, let’s hope everything goes smoothly with the rest of the family.”
Soon Brigette was back in the kitchen and they were all making small talk. They asked her about Harry and how he was doing, but her answers only confused them.
“If you and your husband know of magic, why haven’t you tried to get Harry into a magical school?” McGonagall asked.
“Oh, well,” Brigette laughed dismissively, “When he never got any letter, from Hogwarts or any American schools, we just assumed he wasn’t a wizard.”
“Really?” Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, “Had he not shown any accidental magic?”
“If he has, we wouldn’t know,” She shrugged, “What with the chaos of Murphy’s law and all.”
Huh? The wizard and witch glanced at each other in confusion, “What is Murphy’s law, might I ask?” Dumbledore tilted his head.
“Oh, I assumed you’d know,” Brigette’s eyes widened, “That Lily must’ve mentioned something.”
“I’m afraid not,” Minerva interjected, “Though I presume it has something to do with the Murphy family?”
She nodded, “Well, this might be both easy and hard for you two to understand, I heard James had a hard time believing at first, just accepted it pretty quickly once he did. That’s because, well,” she paused, “How do I put this? Murphy’s Law dictates that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”
The two magic users stared at her in confusion, so she continued quickly, “And for the male born Murphys, that law is quite literal. Everything that can go wrong around them, will. Though it’s not necessarily personal luck, like getting bad grades or something. More like, they should avoid construction sites at all times if possible. So basically, constant chaos.”
‘Well’, Dumbledore mused to himself, ‘I guess that’s why she thought that we were coming with complaints, but why hadn’t Lily told me anything if her family was cursed?’
“Just the males, you say?” Minerva asked, “Is that why Lily seemed just fine?”
Brigette nodded with a small smile, “My daughter and I don’t have it because we’re both girls and I married in. But if, say, a man married in, he wouldn’t have it either. It’s completely genetic.”
“And so you’re saying Harry has this Murphy’s Law curse?” Dumbledore frowned, “If Lily had just told someone we could've uncursed them many years ago.”
Brigette shook her head, “You don’t understand. Murphy’s law….well we’re not sure what it is, something about negative probability ions, but we’re sure it has nothing to do with magic.”
“That’s why you said it would be both easy and hard for us to understand, isn’t it?” Minerva had a conflicted look on her face, “It’s easy because we’re used to strange things, but hard because we can’t accept it’s not magic.”
“Exactly,” Bridette gave a small smile, “But, anyway, I think the best way to understand is to see it in action! The boys should be home soon!”
Then Brigette started to tell them the story of how she met Martin (something about hazmat suits?), but Albus was lost to his own thoughts. He didn’t really understand what having ‘Murphy’s Law’ would mean, but it might explain how untraceable Harry was for so long. He certainly would describe his search for the boy as everything going wrong after all.
But that wasn’t the only thing. If Harry had what sounded like an extremely unpredictable condition, how would Albus be able to contain that? Would if everything going wrong led Harry right into Voldemort’s hands?
He was pulled out of his thoughts when the kitchen wall to his right spontaneously crumbled into pieces. He and Minerva stared at it in shock.
Before either could get out their wands incase of attack, Brigette clapped her hands and smiled, “Oh, they’re home!”
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A few minutes earlier showed the main trio screaming while flying straight off a skyscraper.
“Please, please, say you have something in your backpack, Milo!” Zack screeched, closing his eyes in fear.
“That would be great, yeah,” Melissa imputed.
“Hmmm,” Milo hummed, “Let’s see.” He reached and grabbed his backpack, careful not to let it fly from his hands from the wind pressure. Quickly, he rummaged through and found a bouncy castle.
Melissa frowned at him as he held it up triumphantly, “Wouldn’t that just explode on impact or something?” She yelled over the wind.
“I guess!” He yelled back, “But it’s the best we got!” So he went to work on blowing it up as fast as he could. Soon it was just big enough for the three of them. They all floated it and braced for impact, but it never came.
A huge wave swept right underneath them just in time, softening their landing and drifting them away.
“Woah,” Zack desperately tried to stay steady as they swayed back and forth, “We gotta-AHhh-get out of this thing!”
Milo started looking through his backpack again when Melissa’s phone started ringing. Despite the situation, she answered it.
“He-Ahh-Hello?” Her voice was shaky from all the movement, “YeAHHh, Mur-AH-phy’s Law!”
Zack looked at her in disbelief, “You’re on the phone right now?”
She ignored him and kept listening to whoever was on the other side. After a few moments, she said, “Ok! We’ll be-ahh- there,” and hung up.
“Who was it?!” Milo asked, pulling a pole and three helmets out of his backpack. His voice was the most steady out of them all, probably from experience. But they were slowing down a bit as well.
“Your mom!” Melissa put on her helmet and passed one to Zack, who put it on quickly, “She wants to let you know you have to be home soon. Apparently you guys have some important guests? WOAH!” They hit a bump.
“Oh ok!” Milo smiled, stuck the pole out of the bouncy castle’s opening, and hit dirt. By now they had floated a bit out of the city and he was able to stop their momentum by sticking the pole into the ground. That and the water had slowly been lessening.
After they had all escaped and were catching their breath safely away from the water and bouncy castle, Zack asked, “Wait, why did Milo’s mom call you, Melissa?”
“Oh,” Milo smiled, “That’s because my phone broke yesterday!”
“Yeah, and while he does keep getting new ones, it’s always more reliable to call anyone but him if it’s important,” Melissa laughed and Zack soon joined in.
“Well,” Milo started walking, “Better go meet these ‘important guests’. I just hope it’s not someone trying to sue us again...or the government again…”
“The government has been to your house?” Zack exclaimed.
“Long story. Let’s go!” Melissa ran ahead.
Curiosity was filling Milo, it wasn’t often they would get visitors, most people were afraid to come to their house after all. And if it was someone they knew, like Cavindish and Dakoda, his mom would’ve just said so, right?
Then, something that rarely ever happened, even with Murphy’s Law, occurred. Milo got a bad feeling.