After that, Elly led Bernadette to visit several families of the workers killed in the Cornlis explosion, gathering their accounts of what had happened — and of the injustice that had followed.
Each family received them with gratitude and expectation, sharing everything they knew. Unfortunately, it was all subjective testimony. The sum of it: their husbands and fathers would never have violated safety procedures.
As they left the last family's home, Bernadette said, flatly: "Miss Elly, are you aware that what you're doing right now looks like justice from the outside — but is actually quite cruel?"
"Why?"
"Because those people had already lost hope. They had stopped thinking about it. They were trying to accept reality and rebuild their lives. And then you showed up and gave them hope again — hope you know perfectly well is hollow."
Elly was quiet for a while. "I... I'm not actually a reporter. But if I truly can't help them as a lawyer, I'll do everything I can to get their story into the papers — let more people know what happened."
"If that's really your thinking, then your so-called 'justice' is just self-indulgence dressed up as virtue. You're doing all of this to satisfy some personal fantasy — to feel good about yourself."
Bernadette stated it without softening.
Elly lowered her head and said nothing.
Bernadette didn't push further. It was, after all, only the Wunderkammer's last commission — they had no prior connection — and she had only bothered saying any of this because this girl's particular brand of foolishness reminded her, oddly enough, of someone she used to be.
"If you're done here, let's head out."
"Alright."
Half an hour later, the carriage stopped outside a law firm in Jorwood District. "I'm here." Elly reached into her pocket and produced more banknotes. She held them out.
"You already paid."
"Consider this an extra gratuity."
Bernadette didn't argue. Having a Sequence 3 demigod as your bodyguard for half a day and paying a total of a hundred pounds — Elly had clearly got the better end of that deal.
"Thank you for looking after me today. I hope we meet again!"
Elly gave a bow and hurried inside.
Bernadette watched her disappear. Vincent said: "Well — that's a proper ending, at least. And we've got a hundred pounds for a decent meal. Too bad I can only watch."
"Then I'll eat slowly. Let you really feel it."
"You're evil."
Bernadette had barely started to turn away when Elly's voice rang out from inside, furious: "Why?! Why are you dismissing me?!"
She was backing toward the door under the pressure of a spectacled man's displeasure.
The man looked more pained than anything else. "I simply feel that our firm isn't the right place for someone of your... temperament. I sincerely hope you find a better fit elsewhere."
"Why?"
The man took a slow breath. "Miss Elly. Have you already forgotten what happened yesterday? I brought you along to meet a client — as a courtesy, to help you settle in. And what did you do? You interrogated the client. You told him, to his face, that you intended to sue him on behalf of those workers. That is beyond inappropriate. You were actively sabotaging this firm's livelihood."
Bernadette and Vincent: That... is genuinely quite something.
Elly said, angry but honest: "I know what I did was wrong. But at the time I couldn't — I just couldn't — sit there and say nothing. The Cornlis factory owner isn't just exploiting his workers until they drop dead. The explosion killed all those people and he's refusing to compensate their families — and now he's threatening to sue those families for disrupting his business! He wants to bankrupt them!"
"Ah."
That did put things in a somewhat different light.
"We are lawyers. We are not paladins. Representing clients is what we do — it is your job and mine. Are you under some misapprehension about what a lawyer actually is?"
Elly tightened her fists. "I know... lawyers don't have to be righteous. But surely — surely — there is a line between representing a client and actively working on behalf of someone evil?"
"Do you know why, even for someone convicted of the most horrific crime — with overwhelming evidence — the state still provides them with a defence lawyer at public expense?"
Elly blinked. "What?"
"Because regardless of who someone is, they have the right to legal protection. This reflects the principle of judicial fairness. It has nothing to do with whether the person is good or bad. What matters is evidence. You want to defend those workers? You want to go after the Cornlis factory owner? Fine — do it. At someone else's firm."
He turned and closed the door firmly behind him.
Elly's mouth opened. She tried to say something. In the end she only sighed, dropped her head, and turned around — and found Bernadette still standing there, watching.
Her face went red. "Natasha... you didn't leave?"
Bernadette held her expression for a moment, then said: "You're... remarkable."
She had originally taken Elly for a recently graduated student — clear-eyed and naive. After what she'd just witnessed, she was willing to revise that assessment: purely naive.
"Sorry you had to see that."
Elly said, embarrassed. "Yesterday was my fault. But I was genuinely furious. The Cornlis owner isn't only refusing to compensate the victims' families — he's threatening to sue them for 'disrupting his business' every time they come to his door. He wants to take everything they have."
"Honestly, when I heard that, I couldn't hold my tongue."
A little more understandable, in that context.
"And now I've managed to accomplish nothing and lose the job I'd barely started."
She let out a pitiful sigh. "Which means I'm going to have to..."
Bernadette was about to say something when Elly said quietly: "Going to have to go back and follow my father's... arrangements for me."
Oh.
She can't make it as a lawyer, so it's back home to inherit the family business.
She scrunched up her face. "But going back like this... it feels so shameful. So unfair."
Bernadette said, flatly: "Then open your own firm. Do what you want. Help who you want. Sue who you want."
Elly's eyes lit up. "That... could work!"
"Fine. You do that." Bernadette turned and stepped up into a carriage. "Twenty-Two Scark Street."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
Vincent burst out laughing. "Were you really just like her when you were young?"
She gave a dismissive huff:
"I was idealistic. Not stupid."
"Same thing."
"Quiet."
Harry Potter world.
A week had passed. Bernadette was back at her post as Professor of Muggle Studies, delivering lessons to the young witches and wizards according to the schedule Vincent had laid out.
She had learned from their exchange that Quirrell was almost certainly the one who had hunted the unicorn and tried to frame her. But she didn't act on it. As she had told Vincent: until she had fully mastered the ancient runes and ancient magic, she intended to hold back.
(Note: With the two worlds no longer swapping in the short term, the timelines of each world will no longer be kept in strict synchronisation.)
To be continued…
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